# CVE-2025-21860: mm/zswap: fix inconsistency when zswap_store_page() fails

> A logic error in Linux kernel zswap handling causes accounting inconsistencies and kernel warnings, potentially leading to system instability or denial of service.

- **Severity:** Low 3.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Mar 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21860, GHSA-gp26-q8h6-xxgj, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21860

## What is CVE-2025-21860?

CVE-2025-21860 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Mar 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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\n",
	  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()]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21860?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21860?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21860 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21860 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-21860 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21860 is a low-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Mar 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21860 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21860/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21860/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21860
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21860
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21860

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21860/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.