{"id":"CVE-2025-68788","summary":"fsnotify: do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events on child for special files","details":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nfsnotify: do not generate ACCESS/MODIFY events on child for special files\n\ninotify/fanotify do not allow users with no read access to a file to\nsubscribe to events (e.g. IN_ACCESS/IN_MODIFY), but they do allow the\nsame user to subscribe for watching events on children when the user\nhas access to the parent directory (e.g. /dev).\n\nUsers with no read access to a file but with read access to its parent\ndirectory can still stat the file and see if it was accessed/modified\nvia atime/mtime change.\n\nThe same is not true for special files (e.g. /dev/null). Users will not\ngenerally observe atime/mtime changes when other users read/write to\nspecial files, only when someone sets atime/mtime via utimensat().\n\nAlign fsnotify events with this stat behavior and do not generate\nACCESS/MODIFY events to parent watchers on read/write of special files.\nThe events are still generated to parent watchers on utimensat(). This\ncloses some side-channels that could be possibly used for information\nexfiltration [1].\n\n[1] https://snee.la/pdf/pubs/file-notification-attacks.pdf","modified":"2026-03-31T17:30:04.168128Z","published":"2026-01-13T15:29:01.270Z","related":["MGASA-2026-0017","MGASA-2026-0018","SUSE-SU-2026:0447-1","SUSE-SU-2026:0472-1","SUSE-SU-2026:0473-1","SUSE-SU-2026:0587-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20477-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20498-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20555-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20599-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20615-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1","SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1","openSUSE-SU-2026:20287-1"],"database_specific":{"osv_generated_from":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/68xxx/CVE-2025-68788.json","cna_assigner":"Linux"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/635bc4def026a24e071436f4f356ea08c0eed6ff"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a7d7d96eeeab7af2bd01afbb3d9878a11a13d91"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7a93edb23bcf07a3aaf8b598edfc2faa8fbcc0b6"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/82f7416bcbd951549e758d15fc1a96a5afc2e900"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/859bdf438f01d9aa7f84b09c1202d548c7cad9e8"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/df2711544b050aba703e6da418c53c7dc5d443ca"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e0643d46759db8b84c0504a676043e5e341b6c81"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/68xxx/CVE-2025-68788.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68788"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","events":[{"introduced":"72acc854427948efed7a83da27f7dc3239ac9afc"},{"fixed":"df2711544b050aba703e6da418c53c7dc5d443ca"},{"fixed":"859bdf438f01d9aa7f84b09c1202d548c7cad9e8"},{"fixed":"6a7d7d96eeeab7af2bd01afbb3d9878a11a13d91"},{"fixed":"e0643d46759db8b84c0504a676043e5e341b6c81"},{"fixed":"82f7416bcbd951549e758d15fc1a96a5afc2e900"},{"fixed":"7a93edb23bcf07a3aaf8b598edfc2faa8fbcc0b6"},{"fixed":"635bc4def026a24e071436f4f356ea08c0eed6ff"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-68788.json"}},{"package":{"name":"Kernel","ecosystem":"Linux"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2.6.36"},{"fixed":"5.10.248"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.198"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.160"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.120"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.12.64"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.13.0"},{"fixed":"6.18.3"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-68788.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5"}