bpf: Fix kmemleak warning for percpu hashmap
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-401.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix kmemleak warning for percpu hashmap Vlad Poenaru reported the following kmemleak issue: unreferenced object 0x606fd7c44ac8 (size 32): backtrace (crc 0): pcpu_alloc_noprof+0x730/0xeb0 bpf_map_alloc_percpu+0x69/0xc0 prealloc_init+0x9d/0x1b0 htab_map_alloc+0x363/0x510 map_create+0x215/0x3a0 __sys_bpf+0x16b/0x3e0 __x64_sys_bpf+0x18/0x20 do_syscall_64+0x7b/0x150 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 Further investigation shows the reason is due to not 8-byte aligned store of percpu pointer in htab_elem_set_ptr(): *(void __percpu **)(l->key + key_size) = pptr; Note that the whole htab_elem alignment is 8 (for x86_64). If the key_size is 4, that means pptr is stored in a location which is 4 byte aligned but not 8 byte aligned. In mm/kmemleak.c, scan_block() scans the memory based on 8 byte stride, so it won't detect above pptr, hence reporting the memory leak. In htab_map_alloc(), we already have htab->elem_size = sizeof(struct htab_elem) + round_up(htab->map.key_size, 8); if (percpu) htab->elem_size += sizeof(void *); else htab->elem_size += round_up(htab->map.value_size, 8); So storing pptr with 8-byte alignment won't cause any problem and can fix kmemleak too. The issue can be reproduced with bpf selftest as well: 1. Enable CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK config 2. Add a getchar() before skel destroy in test_hash_map() in prog_tests/for_each.c. The purpose is to keep map available so kmemleak can be detected. 3. run './test_progs -t for_each/hash_map &' and a kmemleak should be reported.
Why it matters now
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
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.160, 6.12.26, 6.14.5, 6.15
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-37807
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-73cw-j3wh-rf6g
- 2026-10-21 Fix available: Linux/Linux@25014e3dfa6d2fb95c920b9e6b2f0b303baa4533, Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-21 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@c5f4b04e1838b9eec426d80500af49cff8631762 · CNA
- 2026-10-30 1 new reference · CNA
- 2026-11-05 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
Patch 3
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Sources
- CVE-2025-37807 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-37807 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-73cw-j3wh-rf6g · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-37807 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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