CVE-2025-38129 page_pool: Fix use-after-free in page_pool_recycle_in_ring

What is CVE-2025-38129?

CVE-2025-38129 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, 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:

page_pool: Fix use-after-free in page_pool_recycle_in_ring

syzbot reported a uaf in page_pool_recycle_in_ring:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in lock_release+0x151/0xa30 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5862 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880286045a0 by task syz.0.284/6943

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 6943 Comm: syz.0.284 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc3-syzkaller-gdfa94ce54f41 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x169/0x550 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602 lock_release+0x151/0xa30 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5862 __raw_spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:165 [inline] _raw_spin_unlock_bh+0x1b/0x40 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:210 spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:396 [inline] ptr_ring_produce_bh include/linux/ptr_ring.h:164 [inline] page_pool_recycle_in_ring net/core/page_pool.c:707 [inline] page_pool_put_unrefed_netmem+0x748/0xb00 net/core/page_pool.c:826 page_pool_put_netmem include/net/page_pool/helpers.h:323 [inline] page_pool_put_full_netmem include/net/page_pool/helpers.h:353 [inline] napi_pp_put_page+0x149/0x2b0 net/core/skbuff.c:1036 skb_pp_recycle net/core/skbuff.c:1047 [inline] skb_free_head net/core/skbuff.c:1094 [inline] skb_release_data+0x6c4/0x8a0 net/core/skbuff.c:1125 skb_release_all net/core/skbuff.c:1190 [inline] __kfree_skb net/core/skbuff.c:1204 [inline] sk_skb_reason_drop+0x1c9/0x380 net/core/skbuff.c:1242 kfree_skb_reason include/linux/skbuff.h:1263 [inline] __skb_queue_purge_reason include/linux/skbuff.h:3343 [inline]

root cause is:

page_pool_recycle_in_ring ptr_ring_produce spin_lock(&r->producer_lock); WRITE_ONCE(r->queue[r->producer++], ptr) //recycle last page to pool page_pool_release page_pool_scrub page_pool_empty_ring ptr_ring_consume page_pool_return_page //release all page __page_pool_destroy free_percpu(pool->recycle_stats); free(pool) //free

spin_unlock(&r->producer_lock); //pool->ring uaf read recycle_stat_inc(pool, ring);

page_pool can be free while page pool recycle the last page in ring. Add producer-lock barrier to page_pool_release to prevent the page pool from being free before all pages have been recycled.

recycle_stat_inc() is empty when CONFIG_PAGE_POOL_STATS is not enabled, which will trigger Wempty-body build warning. Add definition for pool stat macro to fix warning.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38129?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2025-38129?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2025-38129 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38129 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-38129, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38129, GHSA-98jq-f2h2-hqf4, RHSA-2026:4444, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-38129, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-38129 and 21 more.