VDB-323661 · CVE-2025-39737 · Nessus 264742

Linux Kernel up to 6.17-rc1 mm __kmemleak_do_cleanup iteration

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5.5	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Linux Kernel up to 6.17-rc1. This affects the function __kmemleak_do_cleanup of the component mm. Performing a manipulation results in iteration. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2025-39737. There is not any exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.17-rc1. This affects the function __kmemleak_do_cleanup of the component mm. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a iteration vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-834. The product performs an iteration or loop without sufficiently limiting the number of times that the loop is executed. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup() A soft lockup warning was observed on a relative small system x86-64 system with 16 GB of memory when running a debug kernel with kmemleak enabled. watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 33s! [kworker/8:1:134] The test system was running a workload with hot unplug happening in parallel. Then kemleak decided to disable itself due to its inability to allocate more kmemleak objects. The debug kernel has its CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE set to 40,000. The soft lockup happened in kmemleak_do_cleanup() when the existing kmemleak objects were being removed and deleted one-by-one in a loop via a workqueue. In this particular case, there are at least 40,000 objects that need to be processed and given the slowness of a debug kernel and the fact that a raw_spinlock has to be acquired and released in __delete_object(), it could take a while to properly handle all these objects. As kmemleak has been disabled in this case, the object removal and deletion process can be further optimized as locking isn't really needed. However, it is probably not worth the effort to optimize for such an edge case that should rarely happen. So the simple solution is to call cond_resched() at periodic interval in the iteration loop to avoid soft lockup.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-39737 since 04/16/2025. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 264742 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39737), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.4.297, 5.10.241, 5.15.190, 6.1.149, 6.6.103, 6.12.43, 6.15.11, 6.16.2 or 6.17-rc2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying a patch 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 (264742) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2040). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

Google Container-Optimized OS
Debian Linux
Google Cloud Platform
Amazon Linux 2
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Fedora Linux
Ubuntu Linux
SUSE Linux
Oracle Linux
SUSE openSUSE
RESF Rocky Linux
Open Source Linux Kernel
Proxmox Virtual Environment
Proxmox Backup Server
Dell Secure Connect Gateway
IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

Operating System

Vendor

Linux

Name

Kernel

Version

License

open-source

Website

Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

CPE 2.2info

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 5.6
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 5.5

VulDB Base Score: 5.7
VulDB Temp Score: 5.5
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔒

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
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VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Iteration
CWE: CWE-834 / CWE-404
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔒
EPSS Percentile: 🔒

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

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Nessus ID: 264742
Nessus Name: Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39737

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 5.4.297/5.10.241/5.15.190/6.1.149/6.6.103/6.12.43/6.15.11/6.16.2/6.17-rc2
Patch: git.kernel.org