CVE-2025-21895

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 6.2-6.6.80, 6.7-6.12.17, 6.13-6.13.5 - Race Condition in PMU Context List Ordering

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Order the PMU list to fix warning about unordered pmu_ctx_list Syskaller triggers a warning due to prev_epc->pmu != next_epc->pmu in perf_event_swap_task_ctx_data(). vmcore shows that two lists have the same perf_event_pmu_context, but not in the same order. The problem is that the order of pmu_ctx_list for the parent is impacted by the time when an event/PMU is added. While the order for a child is impacted by the event order in the pinned_groups and flexible_groups. So the order of pmu_ctx_list in the parent and child may be different. To fix this problem, insert the perf_event_pmu_context to its proper place after iteration of the pmu_ctx_list. The follow testcase can trigger above warning: # perf record -e cycles --call-graph lbr -- taskset -c 3 ./a.out & # perf stat -e cpu-clock,cs -p xxx // xxx is the pid of a.out test.c void main() { int count = 0; pid_t pid; printf("%d running\n", getpid()); sleep(30); printf("running\n"); pid = fork(); if (pid == -1) { printf("fork error\n"); return; } if (pid == 0) { while (1) { count++; } } else { while (1) { count++; } } } The testcase first opens an LBR event, so it will allocate task_ctx_data, and then open tracepoint and software events, so the parent context will have 3 different perf_event_pmu_contexts. On inheritance, child ctx will insert the perf_event_pmu_context in another order and the warning will trigger. [ mingo: Tidied up the changelog. ]

Scores

CVSS v3 4.7
EPSS 0.0012
EPSS Percentile 2.0%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-362
Status published
Products (15)
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.13.6linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.6.81linux
linux/Kernel 6.7.0 - 6.12.18linux
Linux/Linux < 6.2
Linux/Linux 6.12.18 - 6.12.*
Linux/Linux 6.13.6 - 6.13.*
Linux/Linux 6.14
Linux/Linux 6.2
Linux/Linux 6.6.81 - 6.6.*
Linux/Linux bd27568117664b8b3e259721393df420ed51f57b - 2016066c66192a99d9e0ebf433789c490a6785a2
... and 5 more
Published Apr 01, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026