VulnerabilityPublished 31 Jan 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026

CVE-2025-71183: Linux kernel · Race Condition

Affects Linux kernelSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical · fixed in d52af58dd463821c5c516aebb031a58934f696ea : patch Linux kernel as a priority.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:18 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.1Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS

0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 24% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

Exploitation: No evidence of active exploitation and no public proof of concept
Automatable: Attackers can reliably automate steps 1–4 of the kill chain
Technical impact: Limited control over the software or limited information exposure

CISA SSVC assessment, 2026-10-16.

Patch

Available – fixed in d52af58dd463821c5c516aebb031a58934f696ea, c7f0207db68d5a1b4af23acbef1a8e8ddc431ebb, a63998cd6687c14b160dccb0bbcf281b2eb0dab3 +6

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 31 Jan 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
LinuxLinux	Affected >=3.18.32 <3.19 >=4.1.23 <4.2 >=4.4.8 <4.5 >=4.5.2 <4.6	Fixed in d52af58dd463821c5c516aebb031a58934f696ea c7f0207db68d5a1b4af23acbef1a8e8ddc431ebb a63998cd6687c14b160dccb0bbcf281b2eb0dab3 7ba0b6461bc4edb3005ea6e00cdae189bcf908a5 4.6 4.5 4.2 3.19 0c2413c69129f6ce60157f7b53d9ba880260400b
LinuxLinux	Affected =4.6	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

This vulnerability has been fixed in Linux kernel versions 3.19, 4.2, 4.5, and 4.6 and later. Users should upgrade to these or newer kernel versions to mitigate the issue. No additional mitigation steps are required once patched.

Description

CVE-2025-71183 is a critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem related to improper handling of inode references during rename exchanges involving directories. This flaw can cause the filesystem log to become inconsistent after a power failure, leading to incorrect deletion attempts of directories containing subvolumes during log replay. Such deletion attempts fail and cause the filesystem mount to abort with errors and kernel warnings. The issue affects multiple Linux kernel versions prior to 3.19, 4.2, 4.5, and 4.6, with fixes applied in those versions.

Impact

The vulnerability can cause filesystem mount failures and transaction aborts after power failures due to improper log replay handling of inode references. This can result in denial of service by preventing the filesystem from mounting correctly. There is no indication of confidentiality or availability impact beyond mount failure, and no known exploits in the wild.

Summary

The vulnerability arises when two directories are renamed or exchanged in multiple non-atomic steps, resulting in a log tree that only contains some inodes. After a power failure, the log replay process may attempt to delete an inode that was not deleted before the failure. If this inode is a directory containing a subvolume, the deletion fails because the replay code is not designed to handle directory entries pointing to root items. This leads to mount failures and kernel stack traces. The flaw is fixed in Linux kernel versions 3.19, 4.2, 4.5, and 4.6 and later.

CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition') (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.
Architecture and Design
In languages that support it, use synchronization primitives. Only wrap these around critical code to minimize the impact on performance.
Architecture and Design
Use thread-safe capabilities such as the data access abstraction in Spring.
Architecture and Design
Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.11.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Leveraging Time-of-Check and Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
Leveraging Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 12:09 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-362

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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