CVE-2025-38084

Published Jun 28, 2025

Last updated 6 months ago

CVSS medium 5.5

Overview

AI description

Automated description summarized from trusted sources.

CVE-2025-38084 is a vulnerability in the Linux kernel concerning the handling of hugetlb page tables during VMA splitting. The vulnerability arises because the unsharing of hugetlb page tables is triggered too early in the `__split_vma()` function, specifically before the VMA lock and rmap locks are taken. This premature triggering allows for race conditions where VMA-locked page faults within the process and rmap walks from other processes can cause page tables to be shared again before the split is actually performed. The fix involves explicitly calling into the hugetlb unshare logic from `__split_vma()` at the same point where THP splitting occurs. At this point, both the VMA and the rmap(s) are write-locked. This change ensures that the unsharing of page tables happens under proper locking conditions, preventing the race condition.

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: unshare page tables during VMA split, not before Currently, __split_vma() triggers hugetlb page table unsharing through vm_ops->may_split(). This happens before the VMA lock and rmap locks are taken - which is too early, it allows racing VMA-locked page faults in our process and racing rmap walks from other processes to cause page tables to be shared again before we actually perform the split. Fix it by explicitly calling into the hugetlb unshare logic from __split_vma() in the same place where THP splitting also happens. At that point, both the VMA and the rmap(s) are write-locked. An annoying detail is that we can now call into the helper hugetlb_unshare_pmds() from two different locking contexts: 1. from hugetlb_split(), holding: - mmap lock (exclusively) - VMA lock - file rmap lock (exclusively) 2. hugetlb_unshare_all_pmds(), which I think is designed to be able to call us with only the mmap lock held (in shared mode), but currently only runs while holding mmap lock (exclusively) and VMA lock Backporting note: This commit fixes a racy protection that was introduced in commit b30c14cd6102 ("hugetlb: unshare some PMDs when splitting VMAs"); that commit claimed to fix an issue introduced in 5.13, but it should actually also go all the way back. [jannh@google.com: v2]
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
NVD-CWE-noinfo

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

  1. (CVE-2025-38084, CVE-2025-38085)[mm/hugetlb]hugetlb page table sharing races with VMA splitting -> page table UAF https://t.co/YPwb3TZ3TX https://t.co/tZa2EyZUO7 https://t.co/blzX9U00JT Reported by Jann Horn(@tehjh )

    @xvonfers

    28 Jul 2025

    2696 Impressions

    8 Retweets

    42 Likes

    20 Bookmarks

    2 Replies

    0 Quotes

  2. CVE-2025-38084 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: unshare page tables during VMA split, not before Currently, __split_vma() triggers h… https://t.co/6yXdX9yAmh

    @CVEnew

    28 Jun 2025

    583 Impressions

    0 Retweets

    1 Like

    0 Bookmarks

    0 Replies

    0 Quotes

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value vulnerability in Apache HTTP Server's mod_http leads to denial of service via malicious HTTP requests. This issue affects Apache HTTP Server: from 2.4.17 through 2.4.67.•CVE-2026-49975
  2. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ibmveth: Disable GSO for packets with small MSS Some physical adapters on Power systems do not support segmentation offload when the MSS is less than 224 bytes. Attempting to send such packets causes the adapter to freeze, stopping all traffic until manually reset. Implement ndo_features_check to disable GSO for packets with small MSS values. The network stack will perform software segmentation instead. The 224-byte minimum matches ibmvnic commit <f10b09ef687f> ("ibmvnic: Enforce stronger sanity checks on GSO packets") which uses the same physical adapters in SEA configurations. The issue occurs specifically when the hardware attempts to perform segmentation (gso_segs > 1) with a small MSS. Single-segment GSO packets (gso_segs == 1) do not trigger the problematic LSO code path and are transmitted normally without segmentation. Add an ndo_features_check callback to disable GSO when MSS < 224 bytes. Also call vlan_features_check() to ensure proper handling of VLAN packets, particularly QinQ (802.1ad) configurations where the hardware parser may not support certain offload features. Validated using iptables to force small MSS values. Without the fix, the adapter freezes. With the fix, packets are segmented in software and transmission succeeds. Comprehensive regression testing completedd (MSS tests, performance, stability).•CVE-2026-46273
  3. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: coresight: tmc-etr: Fix race condition between sysfs and perf mode When trying to run perf and sysfs mode simultaneously, the WARN_ON() in tmc_etr_enable_hw() is triggered sometimes: WARNING: CPU: 42 PID: 3911571 at drivers/hwtracing/coresight/coresight-tmc-etr.c:1060 tmc_etr_enable_hw+0xc0/0xd8 [coresight_tmc] [..snip..] Call trace: tmc_etr_enable_hw+0xc0/0xd8 [coresight_tmc] (P) tmc_enable_etr_sink+0x11c/0x250 [coresight_tmc] (L) tmc_enable_etr_sink+0x11c/0x250 [coresight_tmc] coresight_enable_path+0x1c8/0x218 [coresight] coresight_enable_sysfs+0xa4/0x228 [coresight] enable_source_store+0x58/0xa8 [coresight] dev_attr_store+0x20/0x40 sysfs_kf_write+0x4c/0x68 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x120/0x1b8 vfs_write+0x2c8/0x388 ksys_write+0x74/0x108 __arm64_sys_write+0x24/0x38 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x64/0x148 do_el0_svc+0x24/0x38 el0_svc+0x3c/0x130 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xc8/0xd0 el0t_64_sync+0x1ac/0x1b0 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Since the enablement of sysfs mode is separeted into two critical regions, one for sysfs buffer allocation and another for hardware enablement, it's possible to race with the perf mode. Fix this by double check whether the perf mode's been used before enabling the hardware in sysfs mode. mode: [sysfs mode] [perf mode] tmc_etr_get_sysfs_buffer() spin_lock(&drvdata->spinlock) [sysfs buffer allocation] spin_unlock(&drvdata->spinlock) spin_lock(&drvdata->spinlock) tmc_etr_enable_hw() drvdata->etr_buf = etr_perf->etr_buf spin_unlock(&drvdata->spinlock) spin_lock(&drvdata->spinlock) tmc_etr_enable_hw() WARN_ON(drvdata->etr_buf) // WARN sicne etr_buf initialized at the perf side spin_unlock(&drvdata->spinlock) With this fix, we retain the check for CS_MODE_PERF in get_etr_sysfs_buf. This ensures we verify whether the perf mode's already running before we actually allocate the buffer. Then we can save the time of allocating/freeing the sysfs buffer if race with the perf mode.•CVE-2026-46272
  4. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: ath12k: do WoW offloads only on primary link In case of multi-link connection, WCN7850 firmware crashes due to WoW offloads enabled on both primary and secondary links. Change to do it only on primary link to fix it. Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.1.c5-00284-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-1•CVE-2026-46271
  5. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: power: supply: rt9455: Fix use-after-free in power_supply_changed() Using the `devm_` variant for requesting IRQ _before_ the `devm_` variant for allocating/registering the `power_supply` handle, means that the `power_supply` handle will be deallocated/unregistered _before_ the interrupt handler (since `devm_` naturally deallocates in reverse allocation order). This means that during removal, there is a race condition where an interrupt can fire just _after_ the `power_supply` handle has been freed, *but* just _before_ the corresponding unregistration of the IRQ handler has run. This will lead to the IRQ handler calling `power_supply_changed()` with a freed `power_supply` handle. Which usually crashes the system or otherwise silently corrupts the memory... Note that there is a similar situation which can also happen during `probe()`; the possibility of an interrupt firing _before_ registering the `power_supply` handle. This would then lead to the nasty situation of using the `power_supply` handle *uninitialized* in `power_supply_changed()`. Fix this racy use-after-free by making sure the IRQ is requested _after_ the registration of the `power_supply` handle.•CVE-2026-46270

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.