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CVE-2025-38709 Not scored

loop: Avoid updating block size under exclusive owner

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: loop: Avoid updating block size under exclusive owner Syzbot came up with a reproducer where a loop device block size is changed underneath a mounted filesystem. This causes a mismatch between the block device block size and the block size stored in the superblock causing confusion in various places such as fs/buffer.c. The particular issue triggered by syzbot was a warning in __getblk_slow() due to requested buffer size not matching block device block size. Fix the problem by getting exclusive hold of the loop device to change its block size. This fails if somebody (such as filesystem) has already an exclusive ownership of the block device and thus prevents modifying the loop device under some exclusive owner which doesn't expect it.

Exploit probability 0.1%
Published September 4, 2025
Required by Not available
Last source change July 15, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Linux Kernel
Unknown Unknown

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

related OPENSUSE-SU-2025:20081-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03601-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03602-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03633-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:20898-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21074-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21139-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:21179-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:3725-1
related SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2025-38709

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: loop: Avoid updating block size under exclusive owner Syzbot came up with a reproducer where a loop device block size is changed underneath a mounted filesystem. This causes a mismatch between the block device block size and the block size stored in the superblock causing confusion in various places such as fs/buffer.c. The particular issue triggered by syzbot was a warning in __getblk_slow() due to requested buffer size not matching block device block size. Fix the problem by getting exclusive hold of the loop device to change its block size. This fails if somebody (such as filesystem) has already an exclusive ownership of the block device and thus prevents modifying the loop device under some exclusive owner which doesn't expect it.

View original source

05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence