CVE-2025-38564

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel - Reference Count Leak and Memory Corruption via perf_mmap Buffer Mapping Failure

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Handle buffer mapping fail correctly in perf_mmap() After successful allocation of a buffer or a successful attachment to an existing buffer perf_mmap() tries to map the buffer read only into the page table. If that fails, the already set up page table entries are zapped, but the other perf specific side effects of that failure are not handled. The calling code just cleans up the VMA and does not invoke perf_mmap_close(). This leaks reference counts, corrupts user->vm accounting and also results in an unbalanced invocation of event::event_mapped(). Cure this by moving the event::event_mapped() invocation before the map_range() call so that on map_range() failure perf_mmap_close() can be invoked without causing an unbalanced event::event_unmapped() call. perf_mmap_close() undoes the reference counts and eventually frees buffers.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0015
EPSS Percentile 5.0%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Details

Status published
Products (11)
linux/Kernel 6.14.0 - 6.15.10linux
linux/Kernel 6.16.0 - 6.16.1linux
Linux/Linux < 6.14
Linux/Linux 6.14
Linux/Linux 6.15.10 - 6.15.*
Linux/Linux 6.16.1 - 6.16.*
Linux/Linux 6.17
Linux/Linux b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf - 831e1c90a5d72e6977a57c44f47c46b73a438695
Linux/Linux b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf - a9025f73c88d9d6e125743a43afc569da3ce5328
Linux/Linux b709eb872e19a19607bbb6d2975bc264d59735cf - f74b9f4ba63ffdf597aaaa6cad7e284cb8e04820
... and 1 more
Published Aug 19, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026