// For flags

CVE-2025-21866

powerpc/code-patching: Fix KASAN hit by not flagging text patching area as VM_ALLOC

Severity Score

9.8
*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: powerpc/code-patching: Fix KASAN hit by not flagging text patching area as VM_ALLOC Erhard reported the following KASAN hit while booting his PowerMac G4
with a KASAN-enabled kernel 6.13-rc6: BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in copy_to_kernel_nofault+0xd8/0x1c8 Write of size 8 at addr f1000000 by task chronyd/1293 CPU: 0 UID: 123 PID: 1293 Comm: chronyd Tainted: G W 6.13.0-rc6-PMacG4 #2 Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: PowerMac3,6 7455 0x80010303 PowerMac Call Trace: [c2437590] [c1631a84] dump_stack_lvl+0x70/0x8c (unreliable) [c24375b0] [c0504998] print_report+0xdc/0x504 [c2437610] [c050475c] kasan_report+0xf8/0x108 [c2437690] [c0505a3c] kasan_check_range+0x24/0x18c [c24376a0] [c03fb5e4] copy_to_kernel_nofault+0xd8/0x1c8 [c24376c0] [c004c014] patch_instructions+0x15c/0x16c [c2437710] [c00731a8] bpf_arch_text_copy+0x60/0x7c [c2437730] [c0281168] bpf_jit_binary_pack_finalize+0x50/0xac [c2437750] [c0073cf4] bpf_int_jit_compile+0xb30/0xdec [c2437880] [c0280394] bpf_prog_select_runtime+0x15c/0x478 [c24378d0] [c1263428] bpf_prepare_filter+0xbf8/0xc14 [c2437990] [c12677ec] bpf_prog_create_from_user+0x258/0x2b4 [c24379d0] [c027111c] do_seccomp+0x3dc/0x1890 [c2437ac0] [c001d8e0] system_call_exception+0x2dc/0x420 [c2437f30] [c00281ac] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x2c --- interrupt: c00 at 0x5a1274 NIP: 005a1274 LR: 006a3b3c CTR: 005296c8 REGS: c2437f40 TRAP: 0c00 Tainted: G W (6.13.0-rc6-PMacG4) MSR: 0200f932 <VEC,EE,PR,FP,ME,IR,DR,RI> CR: 24004422 XER: 00000000 GPR00: 00000166 af8f3fa0 a7ee3540 00000001 00000000 013b6500 005a5858 0200f932 GPR08: 00000000 00001fe9 013d5fc8 005296c8 2822244c 00b2fcd8 00000000 af8f4b57 GPR16: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000002 GPR24: 00afdbb0 00000000 00000000 00000000 006e0004 013ce060 006e7c1c 00000001 NIP [005a1274] 0x5a1274 LR [006a3b3c] 0x6a3b3c --- interrupt: c00 The buggy address belongs to the virtual mapping at [f1000000, f1002000) created by: text_area_cpu_up+0x20/0x190 The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page: refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:00000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x76e30 flags: 0x80000000(zone=2) raw: 80000000 00000000 00000122 00000000 00000000 00000000 ffffffff 00000001 raw: 00000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: f0ffff00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f0ffff80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >f1000000: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ^ f1000080: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f1000100: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ================================================================== f8 corresponds to KASAN_VMALLOC_INVALID which means the area is not
initialised hence not supposed to be used yet. Powerpc text patching infrastructure allocates a virtual memory area
using get_vm_area() and flags it as VM_ALLOC. But that flag is meant
to be used for vmalloc() and vmalloc() allocated memory is not
supposed to be used before a call to __vmalloc_node_range() which is
never called for that area. That went undetected until commit e4137f08816b ("mm, kasan, kmsan:
instrument copy_from/to_kernel_nofault") The area allocated by text_area_cpu_up() is not vmalloc memory, it is
mapped directly on demand when needed by map_kernel_page(). There is
no VM flag corresponding to such usage, so just pass no flag. That way
the area will be unpoisonned and usable immediately.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/code-patching: Fix KASAN hit by not flagging text patching area as VM_ALLOC Erhard reported the following KASAN hit while booting his PowerMac G4 with a KASAN-enabled kernel 6.13-rc6: BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in copy_to_kernel_nofault+0xd8/0x1c8 Write of size 8 at addr f1000000 by task chronyd/1293 CPU: 0 UID: 123 PID: 1293 Comm: chronyd Tainted: G W 6.13.0-rc6-PMacG4 #2 Tainted: [W]=WARN Hardware name: PowerMac3,6 7455 0x80010303 PowerMac Call Trace: [c2437590] [c1631a84] dump_stack_lvl+0x70/0x8c (unreliable) [c24375b0] [c0504998] print_report+0xdc/0x504 [c2437610] [c050475c] kasan_report+0xf8/0x108 [c2437690] [c0505a3c] kasan_check_range+0x24/0x18c [c24376a0] [c03fb5e4] copy_to_kernel_nofault+0xd8/0x1c8 [c24376c0] [c004c014] patch_instructions+0x15c/0x16c [c2437710] [c00731a8] bpf_arch_text_copy+0x60/0x7c [c2437730] [c0281168] bpf_jit_binary_pack_finalize+0x50/0xac [c2437750] [c0073cf4] bpf_int_jit_compile+0xb30/0xdec [c2437880] [c0280394] bpf_prog_select_runtime+0x15c/0x478 [c24378d0] [c1263428] bpf_prepare_filter+0xbf8/0xc14 [c2437990] [c12677ec] bpf_prog_create_from_user+0x258/0x2b4 [c24379d0] [c027111c] do_seccomp+0x3dc/0x1890 [c2437ac0] [c001d8e0] system_call_exception+0x2dc/0x420 [c2437f30] [c00281ac] ret_from_syscall+0x0/0x2c --- interrupt: c00 at 0x5a1274 NIP: 005a1274 LR: 006a3b3c CTR: 005296c8 REGS: c2437f40 TRAP: 0c00 Tainted: G W (6.13.0-rc6-PMacG4) MSR: 0200f932 <VEC,EE,PR,FP,ME,IR,DR,RI> CR: 24004422 XER: 00000000 GPR00: 00000166 af8f3fa0 a7ee3540 00000001 00000000 013b6500 005a5858 0200f932 GPR08: 00000000 00001fe9 013d5fc8 005296c8 2822244c 00b2fcd8 00000000 af8f4b57 GPR16: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000002 GPR24: 00afdbb0 00000000 00000000 00000000 006e0004 013ce060 006e7c1c 00000001 NIP [005a1274] 0x5a1274 LR [006a3b3c] 0x6a3b3c --- interrupt: c00 The buggy address belongs to the virtual mapping at [f1000000, f1002000) created by: text_area_cpu_up+0x20/0x190 The buggy address belongs to the physical page: page: refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:00000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x76e30 flags: 0x80000000(zone=2) raw: 80000000 00000000 00000122 00000000 00000000 00000000 ffffffff 00000001 raw: 00000000 page dumped because: kasan: bad access detected Memory state around the buggy address: f0ffff00: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 f0ffff80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 >f1000000: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ^ f1000080: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f1000100: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 ================================================================== f8 corresponds to KASAN_VMALLOC_INVALID which means the area is not initialised hence not supposed to be used yet. Powerpc text patching infrastructure allocates a virtual memory area using get_vm_area() and flags it as VM_ALLOC. But that flag is meant to be used for vmalloc() and vmalloc() allocated memory is not supposed to be used before a call to __vmalloc_node_range() which is never called for that area. That went undetected until commit e4137f08816b ("mm, kasan, kmsan: instrument copy_from/to_kernel_nofault") The area allocated by text_area_cpu_up() is not vmalloc memory, it is mapped directly on demand when needed by map_kernel_page(). There is no VM flag corresponding to such usage, so just pass no flag. That way the area will be unpoisonned and usable immediately.

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial
* 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"
>= 4.13 < 6.1.130
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 4.13 < 6.1.130"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 4.13 < 6.6.80
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 4.13 < 6.6.80"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 4.13 < 6.12.17
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 4.13 < 6.12.17"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 4.13 < 6.13.5
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 4.13 < 6.13.5"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 4.13 < 6.14-rc4
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 4.13 < 6.14-rc4"
en
Affected