Local privilege escalation via stale videobuf2 pointer
Published Dec 8, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Use-after-free in affected Linux 6.10 and later kernels allows local users to read and write freed kernel memory through a V4L2 device node. vb2_ioctl_remove_bufs changes the queue buffer list during legacy file I/O, leaving __vb2_perform_fileio with a stale cached buffer pointer for the next read or write. Access to /dev/videoN is required; the stale pointer enables kernel-memory disclosure or overwrite, privilege escalation, or a kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in affected Linux 6.10 and later kernels allows local users to read and write freed kernel memory through a V4L2 device node. vb2_ioctl_remove_bufs changes the queue buffer list during legacy file I/O, leaving __vb2_perform_fileio with a stale cached buffer pointer for the next read or write. Access to /dev/videoN is required; the stale pointer enables kernel-memory disclosure or overwrite, privilege escalation, or a kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-40302
- Published
- Dec 8, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 8, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record 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=a3293a85381ec9680aa2929547fbc76c5d87a1b2 <27afd6e066cfd80ddbe22a4a11b99174ac89cced
- Affected versionversion=a3293a85381ec9680aa2929547fbc76c5d87a1b2 <a6a493b985bfffac097a4e1be09f98b27729dca8
- Affected versionversion=a3293a85381ec9680aa2929547fbc76c5d87a1b2 <e819b34df0a7030a15c968d619fa8a3ed2455c7a
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What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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