NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2025-71184

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix NULL dereference on root when tracing inode eviction When evicting an inode the first thing we do is to setup tracing for it, which implies fetching the root's id. But in btrfs_evict_inode() the root might be NULL, as implied in the next check that we do in btrfs_evict_inode(). Hence, we either should set the ->root_objectid to 0 in case the root is NULL, or we move tracing setup after checking that the root is not NULL. Setting the rootid to 0 at least gives us the possibility to trace this call even in the case when the root is NULL, so that's the solution taken here.

EPSS: 0.001 (2.0th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-71184?
CVE-2025-71184 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2026-01-31.
How severe is CVE-2025-71184?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.