Linux Kernel up to 6.12.49/6.16.9 iommufd fput file descriptor consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.49/6.16.9. This impacts the function fput of the component iommufd. Performing a manipulation results in file descriptor consumption. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-39966. There is no available exploit. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.49/6.16.9. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function fput of the component iommufd. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a file descriptor consumption vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-769. This entry has been deprecated because it was a duplicate of CWE-774. All content has been transferred to CWE-774. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommufd: Fix race during abort for file descriptors fput() doesn't actually call file_operations release() synchronously, it puts the file on a work queue and it will be released eventually. This is normally fine, except for iommufd the file and the iommufd_object are tied to gether. The file has the object as it's private_data and holds a users refcount, while the object is expected to remain alive as long as the file is. When the allocation of a new object aborts before installing the file it will fput() the file and then go on to immediately kfree() the obj. This causes a UAF once the workqueue completes the fput() and tries to decrement the users refcount. Fix this by putting the core code in charge of the file lifetime, and call __fput_sync() during abort to ensure that release() is called before kfree. __fput_sync() is a bit too tricky to open code in all the object implementations. Instead the objects tell the core code where the file pointer is and the core will take care of the life cycle. If the object is successfully allocated then the file will hold a users refcount and the iommufd_object cannot be destroyed. It is worth noting that close(); ioctl(IOMMU_DESTROY); doesn't have an issue because close() is already using a synchronous version of fput(). The UAF looks like this: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in iommufd_eventq_fops_release+0x45/0xc0 drivers/iommu/iommufd/eventq.c:376 Write of size 4 at addr ffff888059c97804 by task syz.0.46/6164 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6164 Comm: syz.0.46 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 08/18/2025 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x116/0x1f0 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xcd/0x630 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0xe0/0x110 mm/kasan/report.c:595 check_region_inline mm/kasan/generic.c:183 [inline] kasan_check_range+0x100/0x1b0 mm/kasan/generic.c:189 instrument_atomic_read_write include/linux/instrumented.h:96 [inline] atomic_fetch_sub_release include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:400 [inline] __refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:455 [inline] refcount_dec include/linux/refcount.h:476 [inline] iommufd_eventq_fops_release+0x45/0xc0 drivers/iommu/iommufd/eventq.c:376 __fput+0x402/0xb70 fs/file_table.c:468 task_work_run+0x14d/0x240 kernel/task_work.c:227 resume_user_mode_work include/linux/resume_user_mode.h:50 [inline] exit_to_user_mode_loop+0xeb/0x110 kernel/entry/common.c:43 exit_to_user_mode_prepare include/linux/irq-entry-common.h:225 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode_work include/linux/entry-common.h:175 [inline] syscall_exit_to_user_mode include/linux/entry-common.h:210 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41c/0x4c0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:100 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-39966 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told 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 271558 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39966), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.50 or 6.16.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 17195a7d754a5c6a31888702ca93f6f08f3383ad/e4825368285e33d6360c6c6a6a10d2d83da06e55/4e034bf045b12852a24d5d33f2451850818ba0c1 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 (271558) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2298). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality 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
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• 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
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.16.0
• 6.16.1
• 6.16.2
• 6.16.3
• 6.16.4
• 6.16.5
• 6.16.6
• 6.16.7
• 6.16.8
• 6.16.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

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