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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2025-40272 json

mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler

published 2025-12-06 11 mo ago modified 2026-10-15 24 d ago also EUVD-2025-201583

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler

When a page fault occurs in a secret memory file created with `memfd_secret(2)`, the kernel will allocate a new folio for it, mark the underlying page as not-present in the direct map, and add it to the file mapping.

If two tasks cause a fault in the same page concurrently, both could end up allocating a folio and removing the page from the direct map, but only one would succeed in adding the folio to the file mapping. The task that failed undoes the effects of its attempt by (a) freeing the folio again and (b) putting the page back into the direct map. However, by doing these two operations in this order, the page becomes available to the allocator again before it is placed back in the direct mapping.

If another task attempts to allocate the page between (a) and (b), and the kernel tries to access it via the direct map, it would result in a supervisor not-present page fault.

Fix the ordering to restore the direct map before the folio is freed.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 5.15.197, 6.1.159, 6.6.117, 6.12.59, 6.17.9, 6.18
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.159-1
  • linux Debian 13 6.12.63-1
  • linux Debian 14 6.17.9-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40272

  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-173.183
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-106.106
  • linux Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-14.14
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1103.110
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1050.53
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 25.10 6.17.0-1007.7
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1103.112
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1052.55

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40272

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-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-40.1
  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.1, Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-39.1.21.16
  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1SUSE-SU-2026:20477-1SUSE-SU-2026:20498-1SUSE-SU-2026:20207-1SUSE-SU-2026:20220-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:20145-1

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-2025-40272 updated cvss 5.8

kernel: mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • 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
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
24 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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