CVE-2025-38102 VMCI: fix race between vmci_host_setup_notify and vmci_ctx_unset_notify
A race condition in the Linux kernel VMCI driver can cause a kernel warning and potential denial of service during notify page setup.
- 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
What is CVE-2025-38102?
CVE-2025-38102 is a high-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Jul 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:
VMCI: fix race between vmci_host_setup_notify and vmci_ctx_unset_notify
During our test, it is found that a warning can be trigger in try_grab_folio as follow:
------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1678 at mm/gup.c:147 try_grab_folio+0x106/0x130 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1678 Comm: syz.3.31 Not tainted 6.15.0-rc5 #163 PREEMPT(undef) RIP: 0010:try_grab_folio+0x106/0x130 Call Trace: <TASK> follow_huge_pmd+0x240/0x8e0 follow_pmd_mask.constprop.0.isra.0+0x40b/0x5c0 follow_pud_mask.constprop.0.isra.0+0x14a/0x170 follow_page_mask+0x1c2/0x1f0 __get_user_pages+0x176/0x950 __gup_longterm_locked+0x15b/0x1060 ? gup_fast+0x120/0x1f0 gup_fast_fallback+0x17e/0x230 get_user_pages_fast+0x5f/0x80 vmci_host_unlocked_ioctl+0x21c/0xf80 RIP: 0033:0x54d2cd ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
Digging into the source, context->notify_page may init by get_user_pages_fast and can be seen in vmci_ctx_unset_notify which will try to put_page. However get_user_pages_fast is not finished here and lead to following try_grab_folio warning. The race condition is shown as follow:
cpu0 cpu1 vmci_host_do_set_notify vmci_host_setup_notify get_user_pages_fast(uva, 1, FOLL_WRITE, &context->notify_page); lockless_pages_from_mm gup_pgd_range gup_huge_pmd // update &context->notify_page vmci_host_do_set_notify vmci_ctx_unset_notify notify_page = context->notify_page; if (notify_page) put_page(notify_page); // page is freed __gup_longterm_locked __get_user_pages follow_trans_huge_pmd try_grab_folio // warn here
To slove this, use local variable page to make notify_page can be seen after finish get_user_pages_fast.
Weakness: CWE-362
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38102?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-38102?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-38102 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38102 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux
Sources
Also known as AZL-64496, BELL-CVE-2025-38102, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38102, GHSA-275j-88f3-q9g5, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38102, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38102 and 3 more.