# CVE-2025-21895: perf/core: Order the PMU list to fix warning about unordered pmu_ctx_list

> A race condition in the Linux kernel perf subsystem can trigger a warning and potential instability when inheriting performance monitoring contexts.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **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:** 1 Apr 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-21895, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21895, GHSA-jvvm-77gw-35g5, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21895, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21895

## What is CVE-2025-21895?

CVE-2025-21895 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 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:

perf/core: Order the PMU list to fix warning about unordered pmu_ctx_list

Syskaller triggers a warning due to prev_epc->pmu != next_epc->pmu in
perf_event_swap_task_ctx_data(). vmcore shows that two lists have the same
perf_event_pmu_context, but not in the same order.

The problem is that the order of pmu_ctx_list for the parent is impacted by
the time when an event/PMU is added. While the order for a child is
impacted by the event order in the pinned_groups and flexible_groups. So
the order of pmu_ctx_list in the parent and child may be different.

To fix this problem, insert the perf_event_pmu_context to its proper place
after iteration of the pmu_ctx_list.

The follow testcase can trigger above warning:

 # perf record -e cycles --call-graph lbr -- taskset -c 3 ./a.out &
 # perf stat -e cpu-clock,cs -p xxx // xxx is the pid of a.out

 test.c

 void main() {
        int count = 0;
        pid_t pid;

        printf("%d running\n", getpid());
        sleep(30);
        printf("running\n");

        pid = fork();
        if (pid == -1) {
                printf("fork error\n");
                return;
        }
        if (pid == 0) {
                while (1) {
                        count++;
                }
        } else {
                while (1) {
                        count++;
                }
        }
 }

The testcase first opens an LBR event, so it will allocate task_ctx_data,
and then open tracepoint and software events, so the parent context will
have 3 different perf_event_pmu_contexts. On inheritance, child ctx will
insert the perf_event_pmu_context in another order and the warning will
trigger.

[ mingo: Tidied up the changelog. ]

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21895?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21895?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21895 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21895 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-2025-21895 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21895 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Apr 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-2025-21895 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-2025-21895/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21895/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21895
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21895
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21895

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21895/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.