Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-21939)
Summary
Vulnerability in Linux kernel (CVE-2025-21939). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
drm/xe/hmm: Don't dereference struct page pointers without notifier lock
The pnfs that we obtain from hmm_range_fault() point to pages that
we don't have a reference on, and the guarantee that they are still
in the cpu page-tables is that the notifier lock must be held and the
notifier seqno is still valid.
So while building the sg table and marking the pages accesses / dirty
we need to hold this lock with a validated seqno.
However, the lock is reclaim tainted which makes
sg_alloc_table_from_pages_segment() unusable, since it internally
allocates memory.
Instead build the sg-table manually. For the non-iommu case
this might lead to fewer coalesces, but if that's a problem it can
be fixed up later in the resource cursor code. For the iommu case,
the whole sg-table may still be coalesced to a single contigous
device va region.
This avoids marking pages that we don't own dirty and accessed, and
it also avoid dereferencing struct pages that we don't own.
v2:
- Use assert to check whether hmm pfns are valid (Matthew Auld)
- Take into account that large pages may cross range boundaries
(Matthew Auld)
v3:
- Don't unnecessarily check for a non-freed sg-table. (Matthew Auld)
- Add a missing up_read() in an error path. (Matthew Auld)
(cherry picked from commit ea3e66d280ce2576664a862693d1da8fd324c317)
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2025-21939 has been found in Linux kernel.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 7.8/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Linux kernel CVE-2025-21939" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2025-21939 (Linux kernel) — CWE-476 / CVSS v3 7.8
Attack vector: local / no user interaction
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-476) exists in Linux kernel.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Linux kernel.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.8/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Audit SBOM/dependencies to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
Audit SBOM/dependencies for affected components.資産台帳・SBOM・依存マニフェストで Linux kernel を使っているサービスとバージョンを洗い出す。
-
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- BellSoft Alpaquita BELL-CVE-2025-21939 linux-lts Fixed in: 6.12.41-r0
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21939 linux Fixed in: 6.12.19-1
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21939 linux-hwe-edge
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org
- web git.kernel.org