Use of Externally-Controlled Format String Affecting perf-debuginfo package, versions <1:6.1.161-183.298.amzn2023


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Amazon Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.07% (21st percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-AMZN2023-PERFDEBUGINFO-15847960
  • published30 Mar 2026
  • disclosed13 Jan 2026

Introduced: 13 Jan 2026

CVE-2025-68816  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-134  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Amazon-Linux:2023 perf-debuginfo to version 1:6.1.161-183.298.amzn2023 or higher.
This issue was patched in ALAS2023-2026-1494.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream perf-debuginfo package and not the perf-debuginfo package as distributed by Amazon-Linux. See How to fix? for Amazon-Linux:2023 relevant fixed versions and status.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

net/mlx5: fw_tracer, Validate format string parameters

Add validation for format string parameters in the firmware tracer to prevent potential security vulnerabilities and crashes from malformed format strings received from firmware.

The firmware tracer receives format strings from the device firmware and uses them to format trace messages. Without proper validation, bad firmware could provide format strings with invalid format specifiers (e.g., %s, %p, %n) that could lead to crashes, or other undefined behavior.

Add mlx5_tracer_validate_params() to validate that all format specifiers in trace strings are limited to safe integer/hex formats (%x, %d, %i, %u, %llx, %lx, etc.). Reject strings containing other format types that could be used to access arbitrary memory or cause crashes. Invalid format strings are added to the trace output for visibility with "BAD_FORMAT: " prefix.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1