CVE-2025-39840CWE-125

CVE-2025-39840

High · published September 19, 2025

CVSS v3.1
7.1
EPSS
0%
Percentile
4.2
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

audit: fix out-of-bounds read in audit_compare_dname_path()

When a watch on dir=/ is combined with an fsnotify event for a

single-character name directly under / (e.g., creating /a), an

out-of-bounds read can occur in audit_compare_dname_path().

The helper parent_len() returns 1 for "/". In audit_compare_dname_path(),

when parentlen equals the full path length (1), the code sets p = path + 1

and pathlen = 1 - 1 = 0. The subsequent loop then dereferences

p[pathlen - 1] (i.e., p[-1]), causing an out-of-bounds read.

Fix this by adding a pathlen > 0 check to the while loop condition

to prevent the out-of-bounds access.

[PM: subject tweak, sign-off email fixes]

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.1 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00154 · 4.2th percentile
Weakness
CWE-125 · Out-of-bounds Read
Published
2025-09-19T20:15Z
Affected products (5)
ProductVersionsFixed in
linux/linux_kernel≥ 6.14, < 6.16.66.16.6
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
linux/linux_kernelall versions—
References (2)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 19 SEP 15:26Z
    audit: fix out-of-bounds read in audit_compare_dname_path()
    cvelistv5