Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4 vmscan me_swapcache_dirty reference count

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4. Affected by this vulnerability is the function me_swapcache_dirty of the component vmscan. This manipulation causes reference count. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-37834. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.25/6.14.4 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function me_swapcache_dirty of the component vmscan. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a reference count vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-911. The product uses a reference count to manage a resource, but it does not update or incorrectly updates the reference count. As an impact it is known to affect availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmscan: don't try to reclaim hwpoison folio Syzkaller reports a bug as follows: Injecting memory failure for pfn 0x18b00e at process virtual address 0x20ffd000 Memory failure: 0x18b00e: dirty swapcache page still referenced by 2 users Memory failure: 0x18b00e: recovery action for dirty swapcache page: Failed page: refcount:2 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x20ffd pfn:0x18b00e memcg:ffff0000dd6d9000 anon flags: 0x5ffffe00482011(locked|dirty|arch_1|swapbacked|hwpoison|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0xfffff) raw: 005ffffe00482011 dead000000000100 dead000000000122 ffff0000e232a7c9 raw: 0000000000020ffd 0000000000000000 00000002ffffffff ffff0000dd6d9000 page dumped because: VM_BUG_ON_FOLIO(!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at mm/swap_state.c:184! Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: CPU: 0 PID: 60 Comm: kswapd0 Not tainted 6.6.0-gcb097e7de84e #3 Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : add_to_swap+0xbc/0x158 lr : add_to_swap+0xbc/0x158 sp : ffff800087f37340 x29: ffff800087f37340 x28: fffffc00052c0380 x27: ffff800087f37780 x26: ffff800087f37490 x25: ffff800087f37c78 x24: ffff800087f377a0 x23: ffff800087f37c50 x22: 0000000000000000 x21: fffffc00052c03b4 x20: 0000000000000000 x19: fffffc00052c0380 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 296f696c6f662865 x16: 7461646f7470755f x15: 747365745f6f696c x14: 6f6621284f494c4f x13: 0000000000000001 x12: ffff600036d8b97b x11: 1fffe00036d8b97a x10: ffff600036d8b97a x9 : dfff800000000000 x8 : 00009fffc9274686 x7 : ffff0001b6c5cbd3 x6 : 0000000000000001 x5 : ffff0000c25896c0 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffff0000c25896c0 x0 : 0000000000000000 Call trace: add_to_swap+0xbc/0x158 shrink_folio_list+0x12ac/0x2648 shrink_inactive_list+0x318/0x948 shrink_lruvec+0x450/0x720 shrink_node_memcgs+0x280/0x4a8 shrink_node+0x128/0x978 balance_pgdat+0x4f0/0xb20 kswapd+0x228/0x438 kthread+0x214/0x230 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 I can reproduce this issue with the following steps: 1) When a dirty swapcache page is isolated by reclaim process and the page isn't locked, inject memory failure for the page. me_swapcache_dirty() clears uptodate flag and tries to delete from lru, but fails. Reclaim process will put the hwpoisoned page back to lru. 2) The process that maps the hwpoisoned page exits, the page is deleted the page will never be freed and will be in the lru forever. 3) If we trigger a reclaim again and tries to reclaim the page, add_to_swap() will trigger VM_BUG_ON_FOLIO due to the uptodate flag is cleared. To fix it, skip the hwpoisoned page in shrink_folio_list(). Besides, the hwpoison folio may not be unmapped by hwpoison_user_mappings() yet, unmap it in shrink_folio_list(), otherwise the folio will fail to be unmaped by hwpoison_user_mappings() since the folio isn't in lru list.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-37834 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

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 6.12.26, 6.14.5 or 6.15-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 1c9798bf8145a92abf45aa9d38a6406d9eb8bdf0/912e9f0300c3564b72a8808db406e313193a37ad/1b0449544c6482179ac84530b61fc192a6527bfd 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-2025-0975). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• 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
• 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
• 6.12.25
• 6.14.0
• 6.14.1
• 6.14.2
• 6.14.3
• 6.14.4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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