Bug 2356612 (CVE-2025-21933)

Summary: CVE-2025-21933 kernel: arm: pgtable: fix NULL pointer dereference issue
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: dfreiber, drow, jburrell, vkumar
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: ---
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-04-01 16:02:27 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

arm: pgtable: fix NULL pointer dereference issue

When update_mmu_cache_range() is called by update_mmu_cache(), the vmf
parameter is NULL, which will cause a NULL pointer dereference issue in
adjust_pte():

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000030 when read
Hardware name: Atmel AT91SAM9
PC is at update_mmu_cache_range+0x1e0/0x278
LR is at pte_offset_map_rw_nolock+0x18/0x2c
Call trace:
 update_mmu_cache_range from remove_migration_pte+0x29c/0x2ec
 remove_migration_pte from rmap_walk_file+0xcc/0x130
 rmap_walk_file from remove_migration_ptes+0x90/0xa4
 remove_migration_ptes from migrate_pages_batch+0x6d4/0x858
 migrate_pages_batch from migrate_pages+0x188/0x488
 migrate_pages from compact_zone+0x56c/0x954
 compact_zone from compact_node+0x90/0xf0
 compact_node from kcompactd+0x1d4/0x204
 kcompactd from kthread+0x120/0x12c
 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x38
Exception stack(0xc0d8bfb0 to 0xc0d8bff8)

To fix it, do not rely on whether 'ptl' is equal to decide whether to hold
the pte lock, but decide it by whether CONFIG_SPLIT_PTE_PTLOCKS is
enabled.  In addition, if two vmas map to the same PTE page, there is no
need to hold the pte lock again, otherwise a deadlock will occur.  Just
add the need_lock parameter to let adjust_pte() know this information.