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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.4

CVE-2020-25285 json

A race condition between hugetlb sysctl handlers in mm/hugetlb.c in the Linux kernel before 5.8.8 could be used by local attackers to corru…

published 2020-09-13 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-17973

cvss
6.4
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 19%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A race condition between hugetlb sysctl handlers in mm/hugetlb.c in the Linux kernel before 5.8.8 could be used by local attackers to corrupt memory, cause a NULL pointer dereference, or possibly have unspecified other impact, aka CID-17743798d812.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 5.8.8
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.8.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-25285

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-193.224
  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-126.129
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-51.56
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1117.131
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1088.93
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1028.29
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1088.101~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1028.29

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-25285

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:1578RHSA-2021:1739

  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3-LTSS, SLES 12 SP3-BCL +4 more 4.4.180-94.138.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3-LTSS, SLES 12 SP3-BCL +4 more 4.4.180-94.138.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3-LTSS, SLES 12 SP3-BCL +5 more 4.4.180-94.138.1
  • kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP3_Update_37 SLES for SAP 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP3-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 +3 more 1-4.3.1
  • kernel-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +1 more 4.4.121-92.149.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +1 more 4.4.121-92.149.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, SLES 12 SP2-BCL +2 more 4.4.121-92.149.1
  • kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP2_Update_39 SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES 12 SP2-LTSS, OpenStack Cloud 7 1-3.3.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:14630-1SUSE-SU-2021:0452-1SUSE-SU-2021:0437-1SUSE-SU-2020:3544-1SUSE-SU-2020:3532-1SUSE-SU-2020:3522-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-syms-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-rt_debug openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-source-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-default-base openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.50.1.lp152.8.10.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.50.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.50.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.50.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:0242-1openSUSE-SU-2020:2112-1openSUSE-SU-2020:1906-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-25285 updated cvss 6.4

kernel: race condition between hugetlb sysctl handlers in mm/hugetlb.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-305.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel 4.18.0-305.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-305.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-305.el8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1578
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1739

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 6.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.4 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
  • CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference
  • CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.