# 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.

- **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:** 14 Jan 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-71139, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71139, GHSA-jp7x-4qxm-3gv8, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-71139

## 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: 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

- [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-2025-71139 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71139 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-2025-71139/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71139/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-71139
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-71139
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-71139

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-71139/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.