Linux kernel: Denial of Service due to sleepable page allocation in KASAN
CVE: CVE-2025-38029
Component: kernel
CWE: CWE-663
Severity: Moderate
CVSS v3: 4.4/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Release date: 2025-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

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

kasan: avoid sleepable page allocation from atomic context

apply_to_pte_range() enters the lazy MMU mode and then invokes
kasan_populate_vmalloc_pte() callback on each page table walk iteration. 
However, the callback can go into sleep when trying to allocate a single
page, e.g.  if an architecutre disables preemption on lazy MMU mode enter.

On s390 if make arch_enter_lazy_mmu_mode() -> preempt_enable() and
arch_leave_lazy_mmu_mode() -> preempt_disable(), such crash occurs:

[    0.663336] BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at ./include/linux/sched/mm.h:321
[    0.663348] in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 2, name: kthreadd
[    0.663358] preempt_count: 1, expected: 0
[    0.663366] RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0
[    0.663375] no locks held by kthreadd/2.
[    0.663383] Preemption disabled at:
[    0.663386] [<0002f3284cbb4eda>] apply_to_pte_range+0xfa/0x4a0
[    0.663405] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 2 Comm: kthreadd Not tainted 6.15.0-rc5-gcc-kasan-00043-gd76bb1ebb558-dirty #162 PREEMPT
[    0.663408] Hardware name: IBM 3931 A01 701 (KVM/Linux)
[    0.663409] Call Trace:
[    0.663410]  [<0002f3284c385f58>] dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x140
[    0.663413]  [<0002f3284c507b9e>] __might_resched+0x66e/0x700
[    0.663415]  [<0002f3284cc4f6c0>] __alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x370/0x4b0
[    0.663419]  [<0002f3284ccc73c0>] alloc_pages_mpol+0x1a0/0x4a0
[    0.663421]  [<0002f3284ccc8518>] alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x88/0xc0
[    0.663424]  [<0002f3284ccc8572>] alloc_pages_noprof+0x22/0x120
[    0.663427]  [<0002f3284cc341ac>] get_free_pages_noprof+0x2c/0xc0
[    0.663429]  [<0002f3284cceba70>] kasan_populate_vmalloc_pte+0x50/0x120
[    0.663433]  [<0002f3284cbb4ef8>] apply_to_pte_range+0x118/0x4a0
[    0.663435]  [<0002f3284cbc7c14>] apply_to_pmd_range+0x194/0x3e0
[    0.663437]  [<0002f3284cbc99be>] __apply_to_page_range+0x2fe/0x7a0
[    0.663440]  [<0002f3284cbc9e88>] apply_to_page_range+0x28/0x40
[    0.663442]  [<0002f3284ccebf12>] kasan_populate_vmalloc+0x82/0xa0
[    0.663445]  [<0002f3284cc1578c>] alloc_vmap_area+0x34c/0xc10
[    0.663448]  [<0002f3284cc1c2a6>] __get_vm_area_node+0x186/0x2a0
[    0.663451]  [<0002f3284cc1e696>] __vmalloc_node_range_noprof+0x116/0x310
[    0.663454]  [<0002f3284cc1d950>] __vmalloc_node_noprof+0xd0/0x110
[    0.663457]  [<0002f3284c454b88>] alloc_thread_stack_node+0xf8/0x330
[    0.663460]  [<0002f3284c458d56>] dup_task_struct+0x66/0x4d0
[    0.663463]  [<0002f3284c45be90>] copy_process+0x280/0x4b90
[    0.663465]  [<0002f3284c460940>] kernel_clone+0xd0/0x4b0
[    0.663467]  [<0002f3284c46115e>] kernel_thread+0xbe/0xe0
[    0.663469]  [<0002f3284c4e440e>] kthreadd+0x50e/0x7f0
[    0.663472]  [<0002f3284c38c04a>] __ret_from_fork+0x8a/0xf0
[    0.663475]  [<0002f3284ed57ff2>] ret_from_fork+0xa/0x38

Instead of allocating single pages per-PTE, bulk-allocate the shadow
memory prior to applying kasan_populate_vmalloc_pte() callback on a page
range.


Remediation:
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.