CVE-2025-40034
Vulnerability Scoring
Status: Awaiting Analysis
Last updated: 🕒 30 Oct 2025, 15:05 UTC
Originally published on: 🕛 28 Oct 2025, 12:15 UTC
Time between publication and last update: 2 days
CVSS Release:
CVE-2025-40034: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: PCI/AER: Avoid NULL pointer dereference in aer_ratelimit() When platform firmware supplies error information to the OS, e.g., via the ACPI APEI GHES mechanism, it may identify an error source device that doesn't advertise an AER Capability and therefore dev->aer_info, which contains AER stats and ratelimiting data, is NULL. pci_dev_aer_stats_incr() already checks dev->aer_info for NULL, but aer_ratelimit() did not, leading to NULL pointer dereferences like this one from the URL below: {1}[Hardware Error]: Hardware error from APEI Generic Hardware Error Source: 0 {1}[Hardware Error]: event severity: corrected {1}[Hardware Error]: device_id: 0000:00:00.0 {1}[Hardware Error]: vendor_id: 0x8086, device_id: 0x2020 {1}[Hardware Error]: aer_cor_status: 0x00001000, aer_cor_mask: 0x00002000 BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000264 RIP: 0010:___ratelimit+0xc/0x1b0 pci_print_aer+0x141/0x360 aer_recover_work_func+0xb5/0x130 [8086:2020] is an Intel "Sky Lake-E DMI3 Registers" device that claims to be a Root Port but does not advertise an AER Capability. Add a NULL check in aer_ratelimit() to avoid the NULL pointer dereference. Note that this also prevents ratelimiting these events from GHES. [bhelgaas: add crash details to commit log]
The exploitability of CVE-2025-40034 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
No exploitability data is available for CVE-2025-40034.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2025-40034, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2025-40034, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
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