# CVE-2025-39725: mm/vmscan: fix hwpoisoned large folio handling in shrink_folio_list

> A race condition in Linux kernel memory reclaim causes a null pointer dereference and kernel panic when handling hwpoisoned large folios.

- **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:** 5 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-39725, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39725, GHSA-qmpx-wcm9-r94f, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39725

## What is CVE-2025-39725?

CVE-2025-39725 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 5 Sep 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/vmscan: fix hwpoisoned large folio handling in shrink_folio_list

In shrink_folio_list(), the hwpoisoned folio may be large folio, which
can't be handled by unmap_poisoned_folio().  For THP, try_to_unmap_one()
must be passed with TTU_SPLIT_HUGE_PMD to split huge PMD first and then
retry.  Without TTU_SPLIT_HUGE_PMD, we will trigger null-ptr deref of
pvmw.pte.  Even we passed TTU_SPLIT_HUGE_PMD, we will trigger a
WARN_ON_ONCE due to the page isn't in swapcache.

Since UCE is rare in real world, and race with reclaimation is more rare,
just skipping the hwpoisoned large folio is enough.  memory_failure() will
handle it if the UCE is triggered again.

This happens when memory reclaim for large folio races with
memory_failure(), and will lead to kernel panic.  The race is as
follows:

cpu0      cpu1
 shrink_folio_list memory_failure
  TestSetPageHWPoison
  unmap_poisoned_folio
  --> trigger BUG_ON due to
  unmap_poisoned_folio couldn't
   handle large folio

[tujinjiang@huawei.com: add comment to unmap_poisoned_folio()]

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39725?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39725?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39725 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39725 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-2025-39725 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39725 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 5 Sep 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-2025-39725 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-2025-39725/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39725/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39725
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39725
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39725

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39725/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.