# CVE-2025-39886: bpf: Tell memcg to use allow_spinning=false path in bpf_timer_init()

> A locking issue in the Linux kernel BPF timer initialization can cause a hardlockup, leading to a 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:** 23 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-67643, AZL-72352, BELL-CVE-2025-39886, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-39886, GHSA-6wfv-64f3-9h2q, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-39886, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-39886, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-39886, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-39886

## What is CVE-2025-39886?

CVE-2025-39886 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 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:

bpf: Tell memcg to use allow_spinning=false path in bpf_timer_init()

Currently, calling bpf_map_kmalloc_node() from __bpf_async_init() can
cause various locking issues; see the following stack trace (edited for
style) as one example:

...
 [10.011566]  do_raw_spin_lock.cold
 [10.011570]  try_to_wake_up             (5) double-acquiring the same
 [10.011575]  kick_pool                      rq_lock, causing a hardlockup
 [10.011579]  __queue_work
 [10.011582]  queue_work_on
 [10.011585]  kernfs_notify
 [10.011589]  cgroup_file_notify
 [10.011593]  try_charge_memcg           (4) memcg accounting raises an
 [10.011597]  obj_cgroup_charge_pages        MEMCG_MAX event
 [10.011599]  obj_cgroup_charge_account
 [10.011600]  __memcg_slab_post_alloc_hook
 [10.011603]  __kmalloc_node_noprof
...
 [10.011611]  bpf_map_kmalloc_node
 [10.011612]  __bpf_async_init
 [10.011615]  bpf_timer_init             (3) BPF calls bpf_timer_init()
 [10.011617]  bpf_prog_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_fcg_runnable
 [10.011619]  bpf__sched_ext_ops_runnable
 [10.011620]  enqueue_task_scx           (2) BPF runs with rq_lock held
 [10.011622]  enqueue_task
 [10.011626]  ttwu_do_activate
 [10.011629]  sched_ttwu_pending         (1) grabs rq_lock
...

The above was reproduced on bpf-next (b338cf849ec8) by modifying
./tools/sched_ext/scx_flatcg.bpf.c to call bpf_timer_init() during
ops.runnable(), and hacking the memcg accounting code a bit to make
a bpf_timer_init() call more likely to raise an MEMCG_MAX event.

We have also run into other similar variants (both internally and on
bpf-next), including double-acquiring cgroup_file_kn_lock, the same
worker_pool::lock, etc.

As suggested by Shakeel, fix this by using __GFP_HIGH instead of
GFP_ATOMIC in __bpf_async_init(), so that e.g. if try_charge_memcg()
raises an MEMCG_MAX event, we call __memcg_memory_event() with
@allow_spinning=false and avoid calling cgroup_file_notify() there.

Depends on mm patch
"memcg: skip cgroup_file_notify if spinning is not allowed":
https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20250905201606.66198-1-shakeel.butt@linux.dev/

v0 approach s/bpf_map_kmalloc_node/bpf_mem_alloc/
https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20250905061919.439648-1-yepeilin@google.com/
v1 approach:
https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20250905234547.862249-1-yepeilin@google.com/

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-39886?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-39886?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-39886 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-39886 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-2025-39886 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-39886 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 23 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-2025-39886 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-2025-39886/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39886/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-39886
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-39886
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-39886

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39886/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.