CVE-2025-71139 kernel/kexec: fix IMA when allocation happens in CMA area
A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel kexec subsystem can cause a system crash when IMA is used with CMA allocations.
- 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-2025-71139?
CVE-2025-71139 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 14 Jan 2026. 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:
kernel/kexec: fix IMA when allocation happens in CMA area
*** Bug description ***
When I tested kexec with the latest kernel, I ran into the following warning:
[ 40.712410] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 40.712576] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 1562 at kernel/kexec_core.c:1001 kimage_map_segment+0x144/0x198 [...] [ 40.816047] Call trace: [ 40.818498] kimage_map_segment+0x144/0x198 (P) [ 40.823221] ima_kexec_post_load+0x58/0xc0 [ 40.827246] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x29c/0x368 [...] [ 40.855423] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
*** How to reproduce ***
This bug is only triggered when the kexec target address is allocated in the CMA area. If no CMA area is reserved in the kernel, use the "cma=" option in the kernel command line to reserve one.
*** Root cause *** The commit 07d24902977e ("kexec: enable CMA based contiguous allocation") allocates the kexec target address directly on the CMA area to avoid copying during the jump. In this case, there is no IND_SOURCE for the kexec segment. But the current implementation of kimage_map_segment() assumes that IND_SOURCE pages exist and map them into a contiguous virtual address by vmap().
*** Solution *** If IMA segment is allocated in the CMA area, use its page_address() directly.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71139?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-71139?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2025-71139 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71139 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71139, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71139, GHSA-jp7x-4qxm-3gv8, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71139.