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TI-2025-16039 Aliases CVE-2025-22090GHSA-526j-rpwr-89fg

x86/mm/pat: Fix VM_PAT handling when fork() fails in copy_page_range()

Priority LOW 31Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
Low · High · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/mm/pat: Fix VM_PAT handling when fork() fails in copy_page_range() If track_pfn_copy() fails, we already added the dst VMA to the maple tree. As fork() fails, we'll cleanup the maple tree, and stumble over the dst VMA for which we neither performed any reservation nor copied any page tables. Consequently untrack_pfn() will see VM_PAT and try obtaining the PAT information from the page table -- which fails because the page table was not copied. The easiest fix would be to simply clear the VM_PAT flag of the dst VMA if track_pfn_copy() fails. However, the whole thing is about "simply" clearing the VM_PAT flag is shaky as well: if we passed track_pfn_copy() and performed a reservation, but copying the page tables fails, we'll simply clear the VM_PAT flag, not properly undoing the reservation ... which is also wrong. So let's fix it properly: set the VM_PAT flag only if the reservation succeeded (leaving it clear initially), and undo the reservation if anything goes wrong while copying the page tables: clearing the VM_PAT flag after undoing the reservation. Note that any copied page table entries will get zapped when the VMA will get removed later, after copy_page_range() succeeded; as VM_PAT is not set then, we won't try cleaning VM_PAT up once more and untrack_pfn() will be happy. Note that leaving these page tables in place without a reservation is not a problem, as we are aborting fork(); this process will never run. A reproducer can trigger this usually at the first try: https://gitlab.com/davidhildenbrand/scratchspace/-/raw/main/reproducers/pat_fork.c WARNING: CPU: 26 PID: 11650 at arch/x86/mm/pat/memtype.c:983 get_pat_info+0xf6/0x110 Modules linked in: ... CPU: 26 UID: 0 PID: 11650 Comm: repro3 Not tainted 6.12.0-rc5+ #92 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-2.fc40 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:get_pat_info+0xf6/0x110 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ... untrack_pfn+0x52/0x110 unmap_single_vma+0xa6/0xe0 unmap_vmas+0x105/0x1f0 exit_mmap+0xf6/0x460 __mmput+0x4b/0x120 copy_process+0x1bf6/0x2aa0 kernel_clone+0xab/0x440 __do_sys_clone+0x66/0x90 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x180 Likely this case was missed in: d155df53f310 ("x86/mm/pat: clear VM_PAT if copy_p4d_range failed") ... and instead of undoing the reservation we simply cleared the VM_PAT flag. Keep the documentation of these functions in include/linux/pgtable.h, one place is more than sufficient -- we should clean that up for the other functions like track_pfn_remap/untrack_pfn separately.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00214 11th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 6.1.160, 6.6.87, 6.12.23 +3Red Hat: 5 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux2.6.29 and later6.1.160, 6.6.87, 6.12.23, 6.13.11, 6.14.2, 6.15Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 2.6.29 and later Fixed in 6.1.160, 6.6.87, 6.12.23, 6.13.11, 6.14.2, 6.15 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*2.6.29 to before 6.6.87; 6.7 to before 6.12.23; 6.13 to before 6.13.11; 6.14 to before 6.14.2VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.29 to before 6.6.87; 6.7 to before 6.12.23; 6.13 to before 6.13.11; 6.14 to before 6.14.2 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.160, 6.6.87, 6.12.23, 6.13.11, 6.14.2, 6.15

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix planned: Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-22090
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-526j-rpwr-89fg
  3. 2026-10-16 CISA SSVC decision points changed

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources