# CVE-2025-68321: page_pool: always add GFP_NOWARN for ATOMIC allocations

> The Linux kernel page pool now adds GFP_NOWARN for atomic allocations to prevent excessive logging during out-of-memory conditions, mitigating potential denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 16 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68321, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68321, GHSA-r8w7-3p4p-f22f, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-68321, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68321, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68321, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68321, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68321, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68321

## What is CVE-2025-68321?

CVE-2025-68321 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

page_pool: always add GFP_NOWARN for ATOMIC allocations

Driver authors often forget to add GFP_NOWARN for page allocation
from the datapath. This is annoying to users as OOMs are a fact
of life, and we pretty much expect network Rx to hit page allocation
failures during OOM. Make page pool add GFP_NOWARN for ATOMIC allocations
by default.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68321?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68321?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68321 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68321 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68321 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68321 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68321 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: 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-2025-68321/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68321/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68321
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68321
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68321

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68321/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.