mm/vmalloc: combine all TLB flush operations of KASAN shadow virtual address into one operation

published 2024-12-27 22 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-53207

cvss: 5.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.1%; EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

When compiling kernel source 'make -j $(nproc)' with the up-and-running KASAN-enabled kernel on a 256-core machine, the following soft lockup is shown:

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#28 stuck for 22s! [kworker/28:1:1760] CPU: 28 PID: 1760 Comm: kworker/28:1 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.10.0-rc5 #95 Workqueue: events drain_vmap_area_work RIP: 0010:smp_call_function_many_cond+0x1d8/0xbb0 Code: 38 c8 7c 08 84 c9 0f 85 49 08 00 00 8b 45 08 a8 01 74 2e 48 89 f1 49 89 f7 48 c1 e9 03 41 83 e7 07 4c 01 e9 41 83 c7 03 f3 90 <0f> b6 01 41 38 c7 7c 08 84 c0 0f 85 d4 06 00 00 8b 45 08 a8 01 75 RSP: 0018:ffffc9000cb3fb60 EFLAGS: 00000202 RAX: 0000000000000011 RBX: ffff8883bc4469c0 RCX: ffffed10776e9949 RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: ffff8883bb74ca48 RDI: ffffffff8434dc50 RBP: ffff8883bb74ca40 R08: ffff888103585dc0 R09: ffff8884533a1800 R10: 0000000000000004 R11: ffffffffffffffff R12: ffffed1077888d39 R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: ffffed1077888d38 R15: 0000000000000003 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8883bc400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00005577b5c8d158 CR3: 0000000004850000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <IRQ> ? watchdog_timer_fn+0x2cd/0x390 ? __pfx_watchdog_timer_fn+0x10/0x10 ? __hrtimer_run_queues+0x300/0x6d0 ? sched_clock_cpu+0x69/0x4e0 ? __pfx___hrtimer_run_queues+0x10/0x10 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? ktime_get_update_offsets_now+0x7f/0x2a0 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? hrtimer_interrupt+0x2ca/0x760 ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x8c/0x2b0 ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x6a/0x90 </IRQ> <TASK> ? asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x16/0x20 ? smp_call_function_many_cond+0x1d8/0xbb0 ? __pfx_do_kernel_range_flush+0x10/0x10 on_each_cpu_cond_mask+0x20/0x40 flush_tlb_kernel_range+0x19b/0x250 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? kasan_release_vmalloc+0xa7/0xc0 purge_vmap_node+0x357/0x820 ? __pfx_purge_vmap_node+0x10/0x10 __purge_vmap_area_lazy+0x5b8/0xa10 drain_vmap_area_work+0x21/0x30 process_one_work+0x661/0x10b0 worker_thread+0x844/0x10e0 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f ? __kthread_parkme+0x82/0x140 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0x2a5/0x370 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x30/0x70 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK>

Debugging Analysis:

1. The following ftrace log shows that the lockup CPU spends too much time iterating vmap_nodes and flushing TLB when purging vm_area structures. (Some info is trimmed).

kworker: funcgraph_entry: | drain_vmap_area_work() { kworker: funcgraph_entry: | mutex_lock() { kworker: funcgraph_entry: 1.092 us | __cond_resched(); kworker: funcgraph_exit: 3.306 us | } ... ... kworker: funcgraph_entry: | flush_tlb_kernel_range() { ... ... kworker: funcgraph_exit: # 7533.649 us | } ... ... kworker: funcgraph_entry: 2.344 us | mutex_unlock(); kworker: funcgraph_exit: $ 23871554 us | }

The drain_vmap_area_work() spends over 23 seconds.

There are 2805 flush_tlb_kernel_range() calls in the ftrace log. * One is called in __purge_vmap_area_lazy(). * Others are called by purge_vmap_node->kasan_release_vmalloc. purge_vmap_node() iteratively releases kasan vmalloc allocations and flushes TLB for each vmap_area. - [Rough calculation] Each flush_tlb_kernel_range() runs about 7.5ms. -- 2804 * 7.5ms = 21.03 seconds. -- That's why a soft lock is triggered.

2. Extending the soft lockup time can work around the issue (For example, # echo ---truncated---

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 2 links 2

Linux Linux 6.12.4, 6.13

debian ubuntu

linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.12.5-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-56559

linux-hwe-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-21.21~24.04.1
linux-oem-6.11 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.11.0-1017.17

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-56559

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

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-2024-56559 updated 2026-11-07 cvss 4.1

kernel: mm/vmalloc: combine all TLB flush operations of KASAN shadow virtual address into one operation

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, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness

CWE-667 Improper Locking

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2024-56559
NVD CVE-2024-56559

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.

Summary