CVE-2025-37958

Published May 20, 2025

Last updated 10 months ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/huge_memory: fix dereferencing invalid pmd migration entry When migrating a THP, concurrent access to the PMD migration entry during a deferred split scan can lead to an invalid address access, as illustrated below. To prevent this invalid access, it is necessary to check the PMD migration entry and return early. In this context, there is no need to use pmd_to_swp_entry and pfn_swap_entry_to_page to verify the equality of the target folio. Since the PMD migration entry is locked, it cannot be served as the target. Mailing list discussion and explanation from Hugh Dickins: "An anon_vma lookup points to a location which may contain the folio of interest, but might instead contain another folio: and weeding out those other folios is precisely what the "folio != pmd_folio((*pmd)" check (and the "risk of replacing the wrong folio" comment a few lines above it) is for." BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffea60001db008 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 2199114 Comm: tee Not tainted 6.14.0+ #4 NONE Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:split_huge_pmd_locked+0x3b5/0x2b60 Call Trace: <TASK> try_to_migrate_one+0x28c/0x3730 rmap_walk_anon+0x4f6/0x770 unmap_folio+0x196/0x1f0 split_huge_page_to_list_to_order+0x9f6/0x1560 deferred_split_scan+0xac5/0x12a0 shrinker_debugfs_scan_write+0x376/0x470 full_proxy_write+0x15c/0x220 vfs_write+0x2fc/0xcb0 ksys_write+0x146/0x250 do_syscall_64+0x6a/0x120 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e The bug is found by syzkaller on an internal kernel, then confirmed on upstream.
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
linux_kernel, debian_linux

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
5.5
Impact score
3.6
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Severity
MEDIUM

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-476

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163