CVE-2025-39844
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-09-19

Last updated on: 2025-11-03

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: move page table sync declarations to linux/pgtable.h During our internal testing, we started observing intermittent boot failures when the machine uses 4-level paging and has a large amount of persistent memory: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffe70000000034 #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP NOPTI RIP: 0010:__init_single_page+0x9/0x6d Call Trace: <TASK> __init_zone_device_page+0x17/0x5d memmap_init_zone_device+0x154/0x1bb pagemap_range+0x2e0/0x40f memremap_pages+0x10b/0x2f0 devm_memremap_pages+0x1e/0x60 dev_dax_probe+0xce/0x2ec [device_dax] dax_bus_probe+0x6d/0xc9 [... snip ...] </TASK> It turns out that the kernel panics while initializing vmemmap (struct page array) when the vmemmap region spans two PGD entries, because the new PGD entry is only installed in init_mm.pgd, but not in the page tables of other tasks. And looking at __populate_section_memmap(): if (vmemmap_can_optimize(altmap, pgmap)) // does not sync top level page tables r = vmemmap_populate_compound_pages(pfn, start, end, nid, pgmap); else // sync top level page tables in x86 r = vmemmap_populate(start, end, nid, altmap); In the normal path, vmemmap_populate() in arch/x86/mm/init_64.c synchronizes the top level page table (See commit 9b861528a801 ("x86-64, mem: Update all PGDs for direct mapping and vmemmap mapping changes")) so that all tasks in the system can see the new vmemmap area. However, when vmemmap_can_optimize() returns true, the optimized path skips synchronization of top-level page tables. This is because vmemmap_populate_compound_pages() is implemented in core MM code, which does not handle synchronization of the top-level page tables. Instead, the core MM has historically relied on each architecture to perform this synchronization manually. We're not the first party to encounter a crash caused by not-sync'd top level page tables: earlier this year, Gwan-gyeong Mun attempted to address the issue [1] [2] after hitting a kernel panic when x86 code accessed the vmemmap area before the corresponding top-level entries were synced. At that time, the issue was believed to be triggered only when struct page was enlarged for debugging purposes, and the patch did not get further updates. It turns out that current approach of relying on each arch to handle the page table sync manually is fragile because 1) it's easy to forget to sync the top level page table, and 2) it's also easy to overlook that the kernel should not access the vmemmap and direct mapping areas before the sync. # The solution: Make page table sync more code robust and harder to miss To address this, Dave Hansen suggested [3] [4] introducing {pgd,p4d}_populate_kernel() for updating kernel portion of the page tables and allow each architecture to explicitly perform synchronization when installing top-level entries. With this approach, we no longer need to worry about missing the sync step, reducing the risk of future regressions. The new interface reuses existing ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK, PGTBL_P*D_MODIFIED and arch_sync_kernel_mappings() facility used by vmalloc and ioremap to synchronize page tables. pgd_populate_kernel() looks like this: static inline void pgd_populate_kernel(unsigned long addr, pgd_t *pgd, p4d_t *p4d) { pgd_populate(&init_mm, pgd, p4d); if (ARCH_PAGE_TABLE_SYNC_MASK & PGTBL_PGD_MODIFIED) arch_sync_kernel_mappings(addr, addr); } It is worth noting that vmalloc() and apply_to_range() carefully synchronizes page tables by calling p*d_alloc_track() and arch_sync_kernel_mappings(), and thus they are not affected by ---truncated---
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Meta Information
Published
2025-09-19
Last Modified
2025-11-03
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2025-09-19
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
CVE-2025-39844
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel 6.1.153
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN
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AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability is a kernel bug that causes intermittent boot failures on Linux systems using 4-level paging with large amounts of persistent memory. The issue arises because the kernel fails to properly synchronize top-level page tables (PGD entries) across all tasks when initializing the vmemmap (a struct page array). Specifically, an optimized code path skips synchronizing these page tables, leading to kernel panics due to page faults when accessing memory areas before the page tables are fully updated. The root cause is that the core memory management code relies on architecture-specific code to perform this synchronization, which is fragile and easy to miss. The fix introduces new kernel functions to ensure synchronization is always performed, making the code more robust and preventing these crashes.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause your Linux system to experience intermittent boot failures and kernel panics when using 4-level paging with large persistent memory. This means your system may fail to start properly or crash unexpectedly during boot, leading to downtime and potential data loss or corruption if the system is unstable.


What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

Immediate mitigation involves updating the Linux kernel to a version where this vulnerability is resolved. The fix includes improved synchronization of top-level page tables during vmemmap initialization to prevent kernel panics. Until the update is applied, avoid configurations that use 4-level paging with large amounts of persistent memory, as these trigger the issue.


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