CVE-2025-68356

Linux Kernel - Denial of Service via Recursive Memory Reclaim in GFS2

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: gfs2: Prevent recursive memory reclaim Function new_inode() returns a new inode with inode->i_mapping->gfp_mask set to GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE. This value includes the __GFP_FS flag, so allocations in that address space can recurse into filesystem memory reclaim. We don't want that to happen because it can consume a significant amount of stack memory. Worse than that is that it can also deadlock: for example, in several places, gfs2_unstuff_dinode() is called inside filesystem transactions. This calls filemap_grab_folio(), which can allocate a new folio, which can trigger memory reclaim. If memory reclaim recurses into the filesystem and starts another transaction, a deadlock will ensue. To fix these kinds of problems, prevent memory reclaim from recursing into filesystem code by making sure that the gfp_mask of inode address spaces doesn't include __GFP_FS. The "meta" and resource group address spaces were already using GFP_NOFS as their gfp_mask (which doesn't include __GFP_FS). The default value of GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE is less restrictive than GFP_NOFS, though. To avoid being overly limiting, use the default value and only knock off the __GFP_FS flag. I'm not sure if this will actually make a difference, but it also shouldn't hurt. This patch is loosely based on commit ad22c7a043c2 ("xfs: prevent stack overflows from page cache allocation"). Fixes xfstest generic/273.

Scores

EPSS 0.0002
EPSS Percentile 7.2%

Details

Status published
Products (13)
linux/Kernel 6.13.0 - 6.17.13linux
linux/Kernel 6.18.0 - 6.18.2linux
linux/Kernel 6.6.0 - 6.12.63linux
Linux/Linux < 6.6
Linux/Linux 6.12.63 - 6.12.*
Linux/Linux 6.17.13 - 6.17.*
Linux/Linux 6.18.2 - 6.18.*
Linux/Linux 6.19
Linux/Linux 6.6
Linux/Linux dc0b9435238c1a68150c798c9c7a1b5d7414cbb9 - 2c5f4a53476e3cab70adc77b38942c066bd2c17c
... and 3 more
Published Dec 24, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026