// For flags

CVE-2025-21860

mm/zswap: fix inconsistency when zswap_store_page() fails

Severity Score

5.5
*CVSS v3

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

0
*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

-
*KEV

Decision

-
*SSVC
Descriptions

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/zswap: fix inconsistency when zswap_store_page() fails Commit b7c0ccdfbafd ("mm: zswap: support large folios in zswap_store()")
skips charging any zswap entries when it failed to zswap the entire folio. However, when some base pages are zswapped but it failed to zswap the
entire folio, the zswap operation is rolled back. When freeing zswap
entries for those pages, zswap_entry_free() uncharges the zswap entries
that were not previously charged, causing zswap charging to become
inconsistent. This inconsistency triggers two warnings with following steps: # On a machine with 64GiB of RAM and 36GiB of zswap $ stress-ng --bigheap 2 # wait until the OOM-killer kills stress-ng $ sudo reboot The two warnings are: in mm/memcontrol.c:163, function obj_cgroup_release(): WARN_ON_ONCE(nr_bytes & (PAGE_SIZE - 1)); in mm/page_counter.c:60, function page_counter_cancel(): if (WARN_ONCE(new < 0, "page_counter underflow: %ld nr_pages=%lu
", new, nr_pages)) zswap_stored_pages also becomes inconsistent in the same way. As suggested by Kanchana, increment zswap_stored_pages and charge zswap
entries within zswap_store_page() when it succeeds. This way,
zswap_entry_free() will decrement the counter and uncharge the entries
when it failed to zswap the entire folio. While this could potentially be optimized by batching objcg charging and
incrementing the counter, let's focus on fixing the bug this time and
leave the optimization for later after some evaluation. After resolving the inconsistency, the warnings disappear. [42.hyeyoo@gmail.com: refactor zswap_store_page()] Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250131082037.2426-1-42.hyeyoo@gmail.com

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/zswap: fix inconsistency when zswap_store_page() fails Commit b7c0ccdfbafd ("mm: zswap: support large folios in zswap_store()") skips charging any zswap entries when it failed to zswap the entire folio. However, when some base pages are zswapped but it failed to zswap the entire folio, the zswap operation is rolled back. When freeing zswap entries for those pages, zswap_entry_free() uncharges the zswap entries that were not previously charged, causing zswap charging to become inconsistent. This inconsistency triggers two warnings with following steps: # On a machine with 64GiB of RAM and 36GiB of zswap $ stress-ng --bigheap 2 # wait until the OOM-killer kills stress-ng $ sudo reboot The two warnings are: in mm/memcontrol.c:163, function obj_cgroup_release(): WARN_ON_ONCE(nr_bytes & (PAGE_SIZE - 1)); in mm/page_counter.c:60, function page_counter_cancel(): if (WARN_ONCE(new < 0, "page_counter underflow: %ld nr_pages=%lu
", new, nr_pages)) zswap_stored_pages also becomes inconsistent in the same way. As suggested by Kanchana, increment zswap_stored_pages and charge zswap entries within zswap_store_page() when it succeeds. This way, zswap_entry_free() will decrement the counter and uncharge the entries when it failed to zswap the entire folio. While this could potentially be optimized by batching objcg charging and incrementing the counter, let's focus on fixing the bug this time and leave the optimization for later after some evaluation. After resolving the inconsistency, the warnings disappear. [42.hyeyoo@gmail.com: refactor zswap_store_page()] Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250131082037.2426-1-42.hyeyoo@gmail.com

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete
* Common Vulnerability Scoring System
SSVC
  • Decision:-
Exploitation
-
Automatable
-
Tech. Impact
-
* Organization's Worst-case Scenario
Timeline
  • 2024-12-29 CVE Reserved
  • 2025-03-12 CVE Published
  • 2025-03-12 CVE Updated
  • ---------- EPSS Updated
  • ---------- Exploited in Wild
  • ---------- KEV Due Date
  • ---------- First Exploit
CWE
CAPEC
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor Product Version Other Status
Vendor Product Version Other Status <-- --> Vendor Product Version Other Status
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 6.13 < 6.13.5
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 6.13 < 6.13.5"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 6.13 < 6.14-rc4
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 6.13 < 6.14-rc4"
en
Affected