x86/mm: Eliminate window where TLB flushes may be inadvertently skipped (Linux Linux)

CVE-2025-37964
HIGH 7.8

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.21 % · percentile 11 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
Linux
NVD status
Modified

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/mm: Eliminate window where TLB flushes may be inadvertently skipped tl;dr: There is a window in the mm switching code where the new CR3 is set and the CPU should be getting TLB flushes for the new mm. But should_flush_tlb() has a bug and suppresses the flush. Fix it by widening the window where should_flush_tlb() sends an IPI. Long Version: === History === There were a few things leading up to this. First, updating mm_cpumask() was observed to be too expensive, so it was made lazier. But being lazy caused too many unnecessary IPIs to CPUs due to the now-lazy mm_cpumask(). So code was added to cull mm_cpumask() periodically[2]. But that culling was a bit too aggressive and skipped sending TLB flushes to CPUs that need them. So here we are again. === Problem === The too-aggressive code in should_flush_tlb() strikes in this window: // Turn on IPIs for this CPU/mm combination, but only // if should_flush_tlb() agrees: cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, mm_cpumask(next)); next_tlb_gen = atomic64_read(&next->context.tlb_gen); choose_new_asid(next, next_tlb_gen, &new_asid, &need_flush); load_new_mm_cr3(need_flush); // ^ After 'need_flush' is set to false, IPIs *MUST* // be sent to this CPU and not be ignored. this_cpu_write(cpu_tlbstate.loaded_mm, next); // ^ Not until this point does should_flush_tlb() // become true! should_flush_tlb() will suppress TLB flushes between load_new_mm_cr3() and writing to 'loaded_mm', which is a window where they should not be suppressed. Whoops. === Solution === Thankfully, the fuzzy "just about to write CR3" window is already marked with loaded_mm==LOADED_MM_SWITCHING. Simply checking for that state in should_flush_tlb() is sufficient to ensure that the CPU is targeted with an IPI. This will cause more TLB flush IPIs. But the window is relatively small and I do not expect this to cause any kind of measurable performance impact. Update the comment where LOADED_MM_SWITCHING is written since it grew yet another user. Peter Z also raised a concern that should_flush_tlb() might not observe 'loaded_mm' and 'is_lazy' in the same order that switch_mm_irqs_off() writes them. Add a barrier to ensure that they are observed in the order they are written.

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HLinux
CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HNVD · 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HNVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

European references

CERT-FR advisories

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
Linux · Linuxaffected 848b5815177582de0e1d0118725378e0fbadca20 < 12f703811af043d32b1c8a30001b2fa04d5cd0ac ; affected b47002ed65ade940839b7f439ff4a194e7d5ec28 < 02ad4ce144bd27f71f583f667fdf3b3ba0753477 ; affected a04fe3bfc71e28009e20357b79df1e8ef7c9d600 < d41072906abec8bb8e01ed16afefbaa558908c89 ; affected 3dbe889a1b829b4c07e0836ff853fe649e51ce4f < d87392094f96e162fa5fa5a8640d70cc0952806f ; affected 6db2526c1d694c91c6e05e2f186c085e9460f202 < 399ec9ca8fc4999e676ff89a90184ec40031cf59 ; affected 6db2526c1d694c91c6e05e2f186c085e9460f202 < fea4e317f9e7e1f449ce90dedc27a2d2a95bee5a
Linux · Linuxaffected 6.14 ; unaffected 0 < 6.14 ; unaffected 5.15.183 ≤ 5.15.* ; unaffected 6.1.139 ≤ 6.1.* ; unaffected 6.6.91 ≤ 6.6.* ; unaffected 6.12.29 ≤ 6.12.*

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD