# CVE-2025-37859: page_pool: avoid infinite loop to schedule delayed worker

> A bug in the Linux kernel page_pool causes an infinite loop and log flooding, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 9 May 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-37859, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-37859, GHSA-74cg-cw39-rj4g, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-37859, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-37859, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-37859, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-37859

## What is CVE-2025-37859?

CVE-2025-37859 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 9 May 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:

page_pool: avoid infinite loop to schedule delayed worker

We noticed the kworker in page_pool_release_retry() was waken
up repeatedly and infinitely in production because of the
buggy driver causing the inflight less than 0 and warning
us in page_pool_inflight()[1].

Since the inflight value goes negative, it means we should
not expect the whole page_pool to get back to work normally.

This patch mitigates the adverse effect by not rescheduling
the kworker when detecting the inflight negative in
page_pool_release_retry().

[1]
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] Negative(-51446) inflight packet-pages
...
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] Call Trace:
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  page_pool_release_retry+0x23/0x70
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  process_one_work+0x1b1/0x370
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  worker_thread+0x37/0x3a0
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  kthread+0x11a/0x140
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  ? process_one_work+0x370/0x370
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  ? __kthread_cancel_work+0x40/0x40
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025]  ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40
[Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ---[ end trace ebffe800f33e7e34 ]---
Note: before this patch, the above calltrace would flood the
dmesg due to repeated reschedule of release_dw kworker.

Weakness: CWE-835 (Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-37859?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-37859?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-37859 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-37859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-37859 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-37859 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 9 May 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-2025-37859 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2025-37859/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37859/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-37859
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37859
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-37859

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-37859/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.