Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6 xe hmm_range_fault null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6. Affected by this issue is the function hmm_range_fault of the component xe. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-21939. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.18/6.13.6 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function hmm_range_fault of the component xe. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/xe/hmm: Don't dereference struct page pointers without notifier lock The pnfs that we obtain from hmm_range_fault() point to pages that we don't have a reference on, and the guarantee that they are still in the cpu page-tables is that the notifier lock must be held and the notifier seqno is still valid. So while building the sg table and marking the pages accesses / dirty we need to hold this lock with a validated seqno. However, the lock is reclaim tainted which makes sg_alloc_table_from_pages_segment() unusable, since it internally allocates memory. Instead build the sg-table manually. For the non-iommu case this might lead to fewer coalesces, but if that's a problem it can be fixed up later in the resource cursor code. For the iommu case, the whole sg-table may still be coalesced to a single contigous device va region. This avoids marking pages that we don't own dirty and accessed, and it also avoid dereferencing struct pages that we don't own. v2: - Use assert to check whether hmm pfns are valid (Matthew Auld) - Take into account that large pages may cross range boundaries (Matthew Auld) v3: - Don't unnecessarily check for a non-freed sg-table. (Matthew Auld) - Add a missing up_read() in an error path. (Matthew Auld) (cherry picked from commit ea3e66d280ce2576664a862693d1da8fd324c317)

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-21939 since 12/29/2024. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 241070 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS : Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities (USN-7606-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.19 or 6.13.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 2a24c98f0e4cc994334598d4f3a851972064809d/f9326f529da7298a95643c3267f1c0fdb0db55eb/0a98219bcc961edd3388960576e4353e123b4a51 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (241070) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0683). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM Security Verify Access

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.13.0
• 6.13.1
• 6.13.2
• 6.13.3
• 6.13.4
• 6.13.5
• 6.13.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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