mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup()
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: 5 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: mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup() A soft lockup warning was observed on a relative small system x86-64 system with 16 GB of memory when running a debug kernel with kmemleak enabled. watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 33s! [kworker/8:1:134] The test system was running a workload with hot unplug happening in parallel. Then kemleak decided to disable itself due to its inability to allocate more kmemleak objects. The debug kernel has its CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE set to 40,000. The soft lockup happened in kmemleak_do_cleanup() when the existing kmemleak objects were being removed and deleted one-by-one in a loop via a workqueue. In this particular case, there are at least 40,000 objects that need to be processed and given the slowness of a debug kernel and the fact that a raw_spinlock has to be acquired and released in __delete_object(), it could take a while to properly handle all these objects. As kmemleak has been disabled in this case, the object removal and deletion process can be further optimized as locking isn't really needed. However, it is probably not worth the effort to optimize for such an edge case that should rarely happen. So the simple solution is to call cond_resched() at periodic interval in the iteration loop to avoid soft lockup.
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
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 5.4 and later | 5.4.297, 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2, 6.17 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 5.4 and later Fixed in 5.4.297, 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2, 6.17 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 9
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4.1 to before 5.4.297; 5.5 to before 5.10.241; 5.11 to before 5.15.190; 5.16 to before 6.1.149; 6.2 to before 6.6.103; 6.7 to before 6.12.43; 6.13 to before 6.15.11; 6.16 to before 6.16.2 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:-:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 rc4 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 rc5 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 rc6 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 rc7 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.4 rc8 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.17 rc1 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 11.0 | Vulnerable | Debian |
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4.1 to before 5.4.297; 5.5 to before 5.10.241; 5.11 to before 5.15.190; 5.16 to before 6.1.149; 6.2 to before 6.6.103; 6.7 to before 6.12.43; 6.13 to before 6.15.11; 6.16 to before 6.16.2 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:-:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 rc5 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 rc6 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 rc7 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 5.4 rc8 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.17 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 11.0 Vulnerable ·Debian
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.4.297, 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2, 6.17
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. 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 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-39737
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-x37q-qw63-qf28
- 2026-11-05 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
Patch 9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f1f4e95031f84867c5821540466d62f88dab8ca
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1ef72a7fedc5bca70e8cc980985790de10d407aa
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a04de4c40aab9b338dfa989cf4aec70fd187eeb2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f014c10d190b92aad366e56b445daffcd1c075e4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e21a3ddd58733ce31afcb1e5dc3cb80a4b5bc29b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8d2d22a55ffe35c38e69795468a7addd1a80e9ce
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/926092268efdf1ed7b55cf486356c74a9e7710d1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b80430c194e4a114dc663c1025d56b4f3d0153d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d1534ae23c2b6be350c8ab060803fbf6e9682adc
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- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2025-39737 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-39737 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-x37q-qw63-qf28 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-39737 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences