CVE-2025-40272

Linux Kernel 5.14.0-6.17.8 Use-After-Free in Secret Memory Fault Handler

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler When a page fault occurs in a secret memory file created with `memfd_secret(2)`, the kernel will allocate a new folio for it, mark the underlying page as not-present in the direct map, and add it to the file mapping. If two tasks cause a fault in the same page concurrently, both could end up allocating a folio and removing the page from the direct map, but only one would succeed in adding the folio to the file mapping. The task that failed undoes the effects of its attempt by (a) freeing the folio again and (b) putting the page back into the direct map. However, by doing these two operations in this order, the page becomes available to the allocator again before it is placed back in the direct mapping. If another task attempts to allocate the page between (a) and (b), and the kernel tries to access it via the direct map, it would result in a supervisor not-present page fault. Fix the ordering to restore the direct map before the folio is freed.

Scores

EPSS 0.0008
EPSS Percentile 22.8%

Details

Status published
Products (19)
linux/Kernel 5.14.0 - 5.15.197linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.159linux
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.17.9linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.6.117linux
linux/Kernel 6.7.0 - 6.12.59linux
Linux/Linux < 5.14
Linux/Linux 1507f51255c9ff07d75909a84e7c0d7f3c4b2f49 - 1e4643d6628edf9c0047b1f8f5bc574665025acb
Linux/Linux 1507f51255c9ff07d75909a84e7c0d7f3c4b2f49 - 42d486d35a4143cc37fc72ee66edc99d942dd367
Linux/Linux 1507f51255c9ff07d75909a84e7c0d7f3c4b2f49 - 4444767e625da46009fc94a453fd1967b80ba047
Linux/Linux 1507f51255c9ff07d75909a84e7c0d7f3c4b2f49 - 52f2d5cf33de9a8f5e72bbb0ed38282ae0bc4649
... and 9 more
Published Dec 06, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026