CVE-2025-68288
kernel: usb: storage: Fix memory leak in USB bulk transport
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · December 16, 2025
Updated · June 30, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
usb: storage: Fix memory leak in USB bulk transport
A kernel memory leak was identified by the 'ioctl_sg01' test from Linux Test Project (LTP). The following bytes were mainly observed: 0x53425355.
When USB storage devices incorrectly skip the data phase with status data, the code extracts/validates the CSW from the sg buffer, but fails to clear it afterwards. This leaves status protocol data in srb's transfer buffer, such as the US_BULK_CS_SIGN 'USBS' signature observed here. Thus, this can lead to USB protocols leaks to user space through SCSI generic (/dev/sg*) interfaces, such as the one seen here when the LTP test requested 512 KiB.
Fix the leak by zeroing the CSW data in srb's transfer buffer immediately after the validation of devices that skip data phase.
Note: Differently from CVE-2018-1000204, which fixed a big leak by zero- ing pages at allocation time, this leak occurs after allocation, when USB protocol data is written to already-allocated sg pages.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-772 · Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime