Linux Kernel up to 6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2 vma vma_modify allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. Affected by this vulnerability is the function vma_modify of the component vma. Such manipulation leads to allocation of resources. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-37760. No exploit exists. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.24/6.14.3/6.15-rc2. Affected by this issue is the function vma_modify of the component vma. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vma: add give_up_on_oom option on modify/merge, use in uffd release Currently, if a VMA merge fails due to an OOM condition arising on commit merge or a failure to duplicate anon_vma's, we report this so the caller can handle it. However there are cases where the caller is only ostensibly trying a merge, and doesn't mind if it fails due to this condition. Since we do not want to introduce an implicit assumption that we only actually modify VMAs after OOM conditions might arise, add a 'give up on oom' option and make an explicit contract that, should this flag be set, we absolutely will not modify any VMAs should OOM arise and just bail out. Since it'd be very unusual for a user to try to vma_modify() with this flag set but be specifying a range within a VMA which ends up being split (which can fail due to rlimit issues, not only OOM), we add a debug warning for this condition. The motivating reason for this is uffd release - syzkaller (and Pedro Falcato's VERY astute analysis) found a way in which an injected fault on allocation, triggering an OOM condition on commit merge, would result in uffd code becoming confused and treating an error value as if it were a VMA pointer. To avoid this, we make use of this new VMG flag to ensure that this never occurs, utilising the fact that, should we be clearing entire VMAs, we do not wish an OOM event to be reported to us. Many thanks to Pedro Falcato for his excellent analysis and Jann Horn for his insightful and intelligent analysis of the situation, both of whom were instrumental in this fix.

The weakness was disclosed by Jann Horn. The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-37760 since 04/16/2025. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 240657 (Ubuntu 25.04 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7594-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.25, 6.14.4 or 6.15-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b906c1ad25adce6ff35be19b65a1aa7d960fe1d7/c103a75c61648203d731e3b97a6fbeea4003cb15/41e6ddcaa0f18dda4c3fadf22533775a30d6f72f 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 (240657) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0922). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

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
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.15-rc1
• 6.15-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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