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PatchSiren cyber security CVE debrief

CVE-2025-11568 Latchset CVE debrief

A data corruption vulnerability exists in the luksmeta utility when used with LUKS1 disk encryption format. The utility fails to validate available space before writing metadata, allowing an attacker with sufficient permissions to overwrite and permanently corrupt encrypted user data by writing excessive metadata. LUKS2 and other formats are unaffected.

Vendor
Latchset
Product
luksmeta utility
CVSS
MEDIUM 4.4
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2025-10-15
Original CVE updated
2026-05-19
Advisory published
2025-10-15
Advisory updated
2026-05-19

Who should care

System administrators managing LUKS1-encrypted storage, security teams responsible for full-disk encryption deployments, and organizations using luksmeta for key escrow or metadata management on encrypted volumes.

Technical summary

The luksmeta utility, used for storing metadata in LUKS headers, contains a validation flaw when operating on LUKS1-formatted devices. The utility does not properly check available space before writing metadata, enabling a privileged attacker to write metadata that overflows its allocated region and overwrites adjacent encrypted data. This results in irreversible data corruption. The vulnerability is confined to LUKS1; LUKS2's different header structure prevents this issue. CVSS 3.1 score of 4.4 (Medium) reflects local attack vector, high privileges required, and high impact to integrity with no confidentiality or availability impact per the scoring vector.

Defensive priority

medium

Recommended defensive actions

  • Apply vendor patches from Red Hat security advisories when available
  • Upgrade luksmeta to patched version incorporating PR #16 fixes
  • Restrict access to luksmeta utility to authorized administrative users only
  • Monitor for unusual metadata write operations on LUKS1-encrypted devices
  • Consider migrating critical LUKS1 volumes to LUKS2 format which is unaffected by this vulnerability
  • Review backup and recovery procedures for encrypted data protection

Evidence notes

Vulnerability affects luksmeta utility specifically with LUKS1 format. Root cause is insufficient space validation during metadata write operations. Issue tracked in Red Hat Bugzilla 2404244. Fix implemented via GitHub pull request #16 in latchset/luksmeta repository.

Official resources

2025-10-15