Linux Kernel up to 6.6.104/6.12.45/6.16.5 sched_numa_find_nth_cpu denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.104/6.12.45/6.16.5. Affected is the function sched_numa_find_nth_cpu. Such manipulation leads to denial of service. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-39895. There is no available exploit. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.104/6.12.45/6.16.5. Affected by this issue is the function sched_numa_find_nth_cpu. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched: Fix sched_numa_find_nth_cpu() if mask offline sched_numa_find_nth_cpu() uses a bsearch to look for the 'closest' CPU in sched_domains_numa_masks and given cpus mask. However they might not intersect if all CPUs in the cpus mask are offline. bsearch will return NULL in that case, bail out instead of dereferencing a bogus pointer. The previous behaviour lead to this bug when using maxcpus=4 on an rk3399 (LLLLbb) (i.e. booting with all big CPUs offline): [ 1.422922] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffffff8000000000 [ 1.423635] Mem abort info: [ 1.423889] ESR = 0x0000000096000006 [ 1.424227] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits [ 1.424715] SET = 0, FnV = 0 [ 1.424995] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 [ 1.425279] FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault [ 1.425735] Data abort info: [ 1.425998] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006, ISS2 = 0x00000000 [ 1.426499] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0 [ 1.426952] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0 [ 1.427428] swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 39-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000004a9f000 [ 1.428038] [ffffff8000000000] pgd=18000000f7fff403, p4d=18000000f7fff403, pud=18000000f7fff403, pmd=0000000000000000 [ 1.429014] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000006 [#1] SMP [ 1.429525] Modules linked in: [ 1.429813] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.17.0-rc4-dirty #343 PREEMPT [ 1.430559] Hardware name: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 (DT) [ 1.431012] pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 1.431634] pc : sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x2a0/0x488 [ 1.432094] lr : sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x284/0x488 [ 1.432543] sp : ffffffc084e1b960 [ 1.432843] x29: ffffffc084e1b960 x28: ffffff80078a8800 x27: ffffffc0846eb1d0 [ 1.433495] x26: 0000000000000000 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000000 [ 1.434144] x23: 0000000000000000 x22: fffffffffff7f093 x21: ffffffc081de6378 [ 1.434792] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: 0000000ffff7f093 x18: 00000000ffffffff [ 1.435441] x17: 3030303866666666 x16: 66663d736b73616d x15: ffffffc104e1b5b7 [ 1.436091] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: ffffffc084712860 x12: 0000000000000372 [ 1.436739] x11: 0000000000000126 x10: ffffffc08476a860 x9 : ffffffc084712860 [ 1.437389] x8 : 00000000ffffefff x7 : ffffffc08476a860 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.438036] x5 : 000000000000bff4 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 [ 1.438683] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : ffffffc0846eb000 x0 : ffffff8000407b68 [ 1.439332] Call trace: [ 1.439559] sched_numa_find_nth_cpu+0x2a0/0x488 (P) [ 1.440016] smp_call_function_any+0xc8/0xd0 [ 1.440416] armv8_pmu_init+0x58/0x27c [ 1.440770] armv8_cortex_a72_pmu_init+0x20/0x2c [ 1.441199] arm_pmu_device_probe+0x1e4/0x5e8 [ 1.441603] armv8_pmu_device_probe+0x1c/0x28 [ 1.442007] platform_probe+0x5c/0xac [ 1.442347] really_probe+0xbc/0x298 [ 1.442683] __driver_probe_device+0x78/0x12c [ 1.443087] driver_probe_device+0xdc/0x160 [ 1.443475] __driver_attach+0x94/0x19c [ 1.443833] bus_for_each_dev+0x74/0xd4 [ 1.444190] driver_attach+0x24/0x30 [ 1.444525] bus_add_driver+0xe4/0x208 [ 1.444874] driver_register+0x60/0x128 [ 1.445233] __platform_driver_register+0x24/0x30 [ 1.445662] armv8_pmu_driver_init+0x28/0x4c [ 1.446059] do_one_initcall+0x44/0x25c [ 1.446416] kernel_init_freeable+0x1dc/0x3bc [ 1.446820] kernel_init+0x20/0x1d8 [ 1.447151] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 1.447493] Code: 90022e21 f000e5f5 910de2b5 2a1703e2 (f8767803) [ 1.448040] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- [ 1.448483] note: swapper/0[1] exited with preempt_count 1 [ 1.449047] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x0000000b [ 1.449741] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 1.450105] Kernel Offset: disabled [ 1.450419] CPU features: 0x000000,00080000,20002001,0400421b [ ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-39895 since 04/16/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 269674 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39895), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.105, 6.12.46 or 6.16.6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch f9b8d4dba8e78c1887fecd81ba0d8204d6ff05fc/b3ec50cc5eb5ca84256ca701d28b137a6036c412/b921c288cd8abef9af5b59e056a63cc2c263a9e3/5ebf512f335053a42482ebff91e46c6dc156bf8c 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 (269674) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2170). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.104
• 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
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.16.0
• 6.16.1
• 6.16.2
• 6.16.3
• 6.16.4
• 6.16.5

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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