Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3 System Call damon_migrate_pages memory corruption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3. Affected is the function damon_migrate_pages of the component System Call Handler. Such manipulation leads to memory corruption. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2025-39700. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3. Affected by this issue is the function damon_migrate_pages of the component System Call Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory corruption vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-119. The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it can read from or write to a memory location that is outside of the intended boundary of the buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/ops-common: ignore migration request to invalid nodes damon_migrate_pages() tries migration even if the target node is invalid. If users mistakenly make such invalid requests via DAMOS_MIGRATE_{HOT,COLD} action, the below kernel BUG can happen. [ 7831.883495] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000001f48 [ 7831.884160] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 7831.884681] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 7831.885203] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 7831.885468] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [ 7831.885852] CPU: 31 UID: 0 PID: 94202 Comm: kdamond.0 Not tainted 6.16.0-rc5-mm-new-damon+ #93 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 7831.886913] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-4.el9 04/01/2014 [ 7831.887777] RIP: 0010:__alloc_frozen_pages_noprof (include/linux/mmzone.h:1724 include/linux/mmzone.h:1750 mm/page_alloc.c:4936 mm/page_alloc.c:5137) [...] [ 7831.895953] Call Trace: [ 7831.896195] <TASK> [ 7831.896397] __folio_alloc_noprof (mm/page_alloc.c:5183 mm/page_alloc.c:5192) [ 7831.896787] migrate_pages_batch (mm/migrate.c:1189 mm/migrate.c:1851) [ 7831.897228] ? __pfx_alloc_migration_target (mm/migrate.c:2137) [ 7831.897735] migrate_pages (mm/migrate.c:2078) [ 7831.898141] ? __pfx_alloc_migration_target (mm/migrate.c:2137) [ 7831.898664] damon_migrate_folio_list (mm/damon/ops-common.c:321 mm/damon/ops-common.c:354) [ 7831.899140] damon_migrate_pages (mm/damon/ops-common.c:405) [...] Add a target node validity check in damon_migrate_pages(). The validity check is stolen from that of do_pages_move(), which is being used for the move_pages() system call.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-39700 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 02/09/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 261623 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39700), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.44, 6.16.4 or 6.17-rc1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 7c303fa1f311aadc17fa82b7bbf776412adf45de/9d0c2d15aff96746f99a7c97221bb8ce5b62db19/7e6c3130690a01076efdf45aa02ba5d5c16849a0 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 (261623) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1988). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• NetApp FAS
• NetApp AFF
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Microsoft Azure
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• IBM Security Verify Access
• Dell NetWorker

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
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.16.0
• 6.16.1
• 6.16.2
• 6.16.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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