CVE-2025-40190
7.8 · HIGHOverview
CVE-2025-40190 is a high-severity vulnerability. It was published on November 12, 2025 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8, rated HIGH. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: guard against EA inode refcount underflow in xattr update
syzkaller found a path where ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref() reads an EA
inode refcount that is already <= 0 and then applies ref_change (often
-1). That lets the refcount underflow and we proceed with a bogus value,
triggering errors like:
EXT4-fs error: EA inode <n> ref underflow: ref_count=-1 ref_change=-1
EXT4-fs warning: ea_inode dec ref err=-117
Make the invariant explicit: if the current refcount is non-positive,
treat this as on-disk corruption, emit ext4_error_inode(), and fail the
operation with -EFSCORRUPTED instead of updating the refcount. Delete the
WARN_ONCE() as negative refcounts are now impossible; keep error reporting
in ext4_error_inode().
This prevents the underflow and the follow-on orphan/cleanup churn.
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2025-40190?
CVE-2025-40190 is a high-severity vulnerability. It was published on November 12, 2025 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH).
How severe is CVE-2025-40190?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8, rated HIGH. It requires local or adjacent network access to exploit. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2025-40190?
Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2025-40190?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2025-40190 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
How CyberStrike Helps
AI agents map your attack surface to find vulnerabilities like this one.
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