CVE-2025-39843

MEDIUMCVSS 5.5/10EPSS 0.11%

Last modified

CVE-2025-39843 is a medium-severity vulnerability rated 5.5/10 on the CVSS scale. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: slub: avoid wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare set_track_prepare() can incur lock recursion. The issue is that it is called from hrtimer_start_range_ns holding the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock, but when enabled CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_TIMERS, may wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare, and try to hold the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock. Avoid deadlock caused by implicitly waking up kswapd by passing in allocation flags, which do not contain __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM in the debug_objects_fill_pool() case. Inside stack depot they are processed by gfp_nested_mask(). Since ___slab_alloc() has preemption disabled, we mask out __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM from the flags there. The oops looks something like: BUG: spinlock recursion on CPU#3, swapper/3/0 lock: 0xffffff8a4bf29c80, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: swapper/3/0, .owner_cpu: 3 Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. EPSS estimates a 0.11% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: slub: avoid wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare set_track_prepare() can incur lock recursion. The issue is that it is called from hrtimer_start_range_ns holding the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock, but when enabled CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_TIMERS, may wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare, and try to hold the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock. Avoid deadlock caused by implicitly waking up kswapd by passing in allocation flags, which do not contain __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM in the debug_objects_fill_pool() case. Inside stack depot they are processed by gfp_nested_mask(). Since ___slab_alloc() has preemption disabled, we mask out __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM from the flags there. The oops looks something like: BUG: spinlock recursion on CPU#3, swapper/3/0 lock: 0xffffff8a4bf29c80, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: swapper/3/0, .owner_cpu: 3 Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Popsicle based on SM8850 (DT) Call trace: spin_bug+0x0 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x80 hrtimer_try_to_cancel+0x94 task_contending+0x10c enqueue_dl_entity+0x2a4 dl_server_start+0x74 enqueue_task_fair+0x568 enqueue_task+0xac do_activate_task+0x14c ttwu_do_activate+0xcc try_to_wake_up+0x6c8 default_wake_function+0x20 autoremove_wake_function+0x1c __wake_up+0xac wakeup_kswapd+0x19c wake_all_kswapds+0x78 __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x1ac __alloc_pages_noprof+0x298 stack_depot_save_flags+0x6b0 stack_depot_save+0x14 set_track_prepare+0x5c ___slab_alloc+0xccc __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x470 __set_page_owner+0x2bc post_alloc_hook[jt]+0x1b8 prep_new_page+0x28 get_page_from_freelist+0x1edc __alloc_pages_noprof+0x13c alloc_slab_page+0x244 allocate_slab+0x7c ___slab_alloc+0x8e8 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x450 debug_objects_fill_pool+0x22c debug_object_activate+0x40 enqueue_hrtimer[jt]+0xdc hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x5f8 ...

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
5.5/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Probability
0.11%

1.4th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

VendorProductVersionsUpdate
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 5.19, < 6.1.151
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.2, < 6.6.105
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.7, < 6.12.46
LinuxLinux Kernel>= 6.13, < 6.16.6
LinuxLinux Kernel6.17Rc1
DebianDebian Linux11.0

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Modified

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-39843?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: slub: avoid wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare set_track_prepare() can incur lock recursion. The issue is that it is called from hrtimer_start_range_ns holding the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock, but when enabled CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_TIMERS, may wake up kswapd in set_track_prepare, and try to hold the per_cpu(hrtimer_bases)[n].lock. Avoid deadlock caused by implicitly waking up kswapd by passing in allocation flags, which do not contain __GFP_KSWAPD_RECLAIM in the debug_objects_fill_pool() case. Inside stack depot they are processed by gfp_nested_mask(). Since ___slab_alloc() has preemption disabled, we mask out __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM from the flags there. The oops looks something like: BUG: spinlock recursion on CPU#3, swapper/3/0 lock: 0xffffff8a4bf29c80, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: swapper/3/0, .owner_cpu: 3 Hardware name: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Popsicle based on SM8850 (DT) Call trace: spin_bug+0x0 _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x80 hrtimer_try_to_cancel+0x94 task_contending+0x10c enqueue_dl_entity+0x2a4 dl_server_start+0x74 enqueue_task_fair+0x568 enqueue_task+0xac do_activate_task+0x14c ttwu_do_activate+0xcc try_to_wake_up+0x6c8 default_wake_function+0x20 autoremove_wake_function+0x1c __wake_up+0xac wakeup_kswapd+0x19c wake_all_kswapds+0x78 __alloc_pages_slowpath+0x1ac __alloc_pages_noprof+0x298 stack_depot_save_flags+0x6b0 stack_depot_save+0x14 set_track_prepare+0x5c ___slab_alloc+0xccc __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x470 __set_page_owner+0x2bc post_alloc_hook[jt]+0x1b8 prep_new_page+0x28 get_page_from_freelist+0x1edc __alloc_pages_noprof+0x13c alloc_slab_page+0x244 allocate_slab+0x7c ___slab_alloc+0x8e8 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x450 debug_objects_fill_pool+0x22c debug_object_activate+0x40 enqueue_hrtimer[jt]+0xdc hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x5f8 ...
How severe is CVE-2025-39843?
CVE-2025-39843 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.11% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2025-39843?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

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Source: NVD / NIST