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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2025-68299: afs: Fix delayed allocation of a cell's anonymous key

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 0/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.26% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 5613bde937dfac6725e9c3fc766b9d6b8481e55b, 6.17.11, bd18d2cbc9377c6b270c0b7ea44b0e6ed1d99c07.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 5613bde937dfac6725e9c3fc766b9d6b8481e55b, 6.17.11, bd18d2cbc9377c6b270c0b7ea44b0e6ed1d99c07 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: afs: Fix delayed allocation of a cell's anonymous key The allocation of a cell's anonymous key is done in a background thread along with other cell setup such as doing a DNS upcall. In the reported bug, this is triggered by afs_parse_source() parsing the device name given to mount() and calling afs_lookup_cell() with the name of the cell. The normal key lookup then tries to use the key description on the anonymous authentication key as the reference for request_key() - but it may not yet be set and so an oops can happen. This has been made more likely to happen by the fix for dynamic lookup failure. Fix this by firstly allocating a reference name and attaching it to the afs_cell record when the record is created. It can share the memory allocation with the cell name (unfortunately it can't just overlap the cell name by prepending it with "afs@" as the cell name already has a '.' prepended for other purposes). This reference name is then passed to request_key(). Secondly, the anon key is now allocated on demand at the point a key is requested in afs_request_key() if it is not already allocated. A mutex is used to prevent multiple allocation for a cell. Thirdly, make afs_request_key_rcu() return NULL if the anonymous key isn't yet allocated (if we need it) and then the caller can return -ECHILD to drop out of RCU-mode and afs_request_key() can be called. Note that the anonymous key is kind of necessary to make the key lookup cache work as that doesn't currently cache a negative lookup, but it's probably worth some investigation to see if NULL can be used instead.

—No exploit Fix available
Published
Dec 16, 2025
Updated
Oct 14, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 18th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

0

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
0 / 40 · —
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

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Noroxi analysis

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Affected systems

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—

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • fa4ccdccf1489a6dac4369a8c69f11b455b3355c and later · before bd18d2cbc9377c6b270c0b7ea44b0e6ed1d99c07affected · git
    • 7e33b15d5a6578a99ebf189cea34983270ae92dd and later · before 5613bde937dfac6725e9c3fc766b9d6b8481e55baffected · git
    • 330e2c514823008b22e6afd2055715bc46dd8d55 and later · before d27c71257825dced46104eefe42e4d9964bd032eaffected · git
    • 6.17.9 and later · before 6.17.11affected · semver

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:14linuxbefore 6.17.11-16.17.11-1

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-74705udp: fix potential use-after-free in tunnel segmentation
    40Plan
  • CVE-2026-74612veth: fix skb length accounting after XDP frag adjustment
    40Plan
  • CVE-2026-74475vxlan: use neigh_ha_snapshot() in route_shortcircuit()
    40Plan

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-68297Dec 16, 2025 · ceph: fix crash in process_v2_sparse_read() for encrypted directories
    0Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2025-68298Dec 16, 2025 · Bluetooth: btusb: mediatek: Avoid btusb_mtk_claim_iso_intf() NULL deref
    0Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2025-68300Dec 16, 2025 · fs/namespace: fix reference leak in grab_requested_mnt_ns
    0Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux5613bde937dfac6725e9c3fc766b9d6b8481e55bVendor (CNA)
Linux Linux6.17.11Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxbd18d2cbc9377c6b270c0b7ea44b0e6ed1d99c07Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxd27c71257825dced46104eefe42e4d9964bd032eVendor (CNA)
debian:linux6.17.11-1 · Debian:14Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

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Timeline

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EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

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Credits

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No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

No CVSS vector for this record, so attack conditions can't be derived.

Weakness class (CWE)

—

Attack context

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Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

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References

Show all references (2 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

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