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CVE-2025-40272 Not scored

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

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.

Exploit probability 0.2%
Published December 6, 2025
Required by Not available
Last source change July 15, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Linux Kernel
Unknown Unknown

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

related OPENSUSE-SU-2026:20145-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:0278-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:0281-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:0293-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:0315-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20207-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20220-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20228-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20477-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20498-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20845-1
related SUSE-SU-2026:20876-1

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2025-40272

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.

View original source

05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence