CVE-2025-38085: mm/hugetlb: fix huge_pmd_unshare() vs GUP-fast race

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2025-38085 is a high (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in debian debian_linux. EPSS estimates a 0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 28-06-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: fix huge_pmd_unshare() vs GUP-fast race huge_pmd_unshare() drops a reference on a page table that may have previously been shared across processes, potentially turning it into a normal page table used in another process in which unrelated VMAs can afterwards be installed. If this happens in the middle of a concurrent gup_fast(), gup_fast() could end up walking the page tables of another process. While I don't see any way in which that immediately leads to kernel memory corruption, it is really weird and unexpected. Fix it with an explicit broadcast IPI through tlb_remove_table_sync_one(), just like we do in khugepaged when removing page tables for a THP collapse.

• CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper SynchronizationThe product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.