Kernel crash via SMC socket initialization race
Published Dec 16, 2025 · Updated Dec 16, 2025
Race condition in the Linux kernel SMC diagnostics allows local users to crash the system through concurrent socket creation and dump requests. During socket creation, inet_init_csk_locks overwrites smc->clcsock before initialization completes while __smc_diag_dump traverses the socket hash and dereferences it. The demonstrated trigger requires CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC and a race with a diagnostic Netlink dump; the reported consequence is a kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in the Linux kernel SMC diagnostics allows local users to crash the system through concurrent socket creation and dump requests. During socket creation, inet_init_csk_locks overwrites smc->clcsock before initialization completes while __smc_diag_dump traverses the socket hash and dereferences it. The demonstrated trigger requires CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC and a race with a diagnostic Netlink dump; the reported consequence is a kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-40357
- Published
- Dec 16, 2025
- Updated
- Dec 16, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- Unavailable
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 16, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Dec 16, 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?
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- Affected versionversion=6.11
- Affected versionversion=d25a92ccae6bed02327b63d138e12e7806830f78 <5b6fc95c4a161326567bdf12a333768565b638f2
- Affected versionversion=d25a92ccae6bed02327b63d138e12e7806830f78 <99b5b3faf3220ba1cdab8e6e42be4f3f993937c3
- Affected versionversion=d25a92ccae6bed02327b63d138e12e7806830f78 <f584239a9ed25057496bf397c370cc5163dde419
What conditions does exploitation require?
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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