Local privilege escalation via notification context confusion
Published Oct 9, 2025 · Updated Oct 9, 2025
Local privilege escalation in the io_uring notification path in Linux allows local users to read and write arbitrary kernel memory. The io_link_skb function derives prev_notif from the current nd request rather than prev_nd, so its context check compares the current notification with itself and permits cross-ring completion-list corruption. An unprivileged local process can reach the path when io_uring is enabled by issuing consecutive zerocopy sends on a shared socket; exploitation grants root-level control or interrupts service through a kernel hang or panic.
Summary
What happened
Local privilege escalation in the io_uring notification path in Linux allows local users to read and write arbitrary kernel memory. The io_link_skb function derives prev_notif from the current nd request rather than prev_nd, so its context check compares the current notification with itself and permits cross-ring completion-list corruption. An unprivileged local process can reach the path when io_uring is enabled by issuing consecutive zerocopy sends on a shared socket; exploitation grants root-level control or interrupts service through a kernel hang or panic.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-39963
- Published
- Oct 9, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 9, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 9, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 9, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.10
- Affected versionversion=6fe4220912d19152a26ce19713ab232f4263018d <2c139a47eff8de24e3350dadb4c9d5e3426db826
- Affected versionversion=6fe4220912d19152a26ce19713ab232f4263018d <50a98ce1ea694f1ff8e87bc2f8f84096d1736f6a
- Affected versionversion=6fe4220912d19152a26ce19713ab232f4263018d <a89c34babc2e5834aa0905278f26f4dbe4b26b76
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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