Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-40090

DoS in Linux Kernel 6.12.53 – 6.12.55

Published
30 October 2025
Modified
30 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0026 18th percentile
Risk Priority 56 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-40090 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 18th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: fix recursive locking in RPC handle list access Since commit 305853cce3794 ("ksmbd: Fix race condition in RPC handle list access"), ksmbd_session_rpc_method() attempts to lock sess->rpc_lock. This causes hung connections…

more

/ tasks when a client attempts to open a named pipe. Using Samba's rpcclient tool: $ rpcclient //192.168.1.254 -U user%password $ rpcclient $> srvinfo <connection hung here> Kernel side: "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:kworker/0:0 state:D stack:0 pid:5021 tgid:5021 ppid:2 flags:0x00200000 Workqueue: ksmbd-io handle_ksmbd_work Call trace: __schedule from schedule+0x3c/0x58 schedule from schedule_preempt_disabled+0xc/0x10 schedule_preempt_disabled from rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x1b0/0x1d8 rwsem_down_read_slowpath from down_read+0x28/0x30 down_read from ksmbd_session_rpc_method+0x18/0x3c ksmbd_session_rpc_method from ksmbd_rpc_open+0x34/0x68 ksmbd_rpc_open from ksmbd_session_rpc_open+0x194/0x228 ksmbd_session_rpc_open from create_smb2_pipe+0x8c/0x2c8 create_smb2_pipe from smb2_open+0x10c/0x27ac smb2_open from handle_ksmbd_work+0x238/0x3dc handle_ksmbd_work from process_scheduled_works+0x160/0x25c process_scheduled_works from worker_thread+0x16c/0x1e8 worker_thread from kthread+0xa8/0xb8 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38 Exception stack(0x8529ffb0 to 0x8529fff8) The task deadlocks because the lock is already held: ksmbd_session_rpc_open down_write(&sess->rpc_lock) ksmbd_rpc_open ksmbd_session_rpc_method down_read(&sess->rpc_lock) <-- deadlock Adjust ksmbd_session_rpc_method() callers to take the lock when necessary.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.18 · 6.12.53 — 6.12.55 · 6.17.3 — 6.17.5

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Input validation can reject or constrain data that would otherwise drive unbounded recursive calls.

DoS protection mechanisms limit the resource-exhaustion impact of uncontrolled recursion without eliminating the flaw.

System monitoring can observe anomalous resource consumption that signals runaway recursion after it begins.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent coding errors such as missing recursion limits or termination conditions.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of compute resources can detect excessive consumption caused by uncontrolled recursion.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record uncontrolled recursion flaws before deployment.

PR.IR-04 partial match
prevents

Capacity monitoring and resource provisioning can absorb or limit the impact of runaway recursion.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development can detect excessive recursion via static analysis or fuzzing.

prevents

Secure development life cycle requires controls that prevent uncontrolled recursion through design and code review.

prevents

Application security requirements can mandate recursion limits or stack-depth checks.

prevents

Secure system architecture principles include resource-management and input-validation rules that limit recursion.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prohibit or constrain recursive constructs that could exhaust stack or memory.

finds

Capacity management includes monitoring and limits that mitigate resource exhaustion from runaway recursion.

References