Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing: Do not allow mmap() of persistent ring buffer
When trying to mmap a trace instance buffer that is attached to
reserve_mem, it would crash:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffe97bd00025c8
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 2862f3067 P4D 2862f3067 PUD 0
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT_RT SMP PTI
CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 981 Comm: mmap-rb Not tainted 6.14.0-rc2-test-00003-g7f1a5e3fbf9e-dirty #233
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:validate_page_before_insert+0x5/0xb0
Code: e2 01 89 d0 c3 cc cc cc cc 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 <48> 8b 46 08 a8 01 75 67 66 90 48 89 f0 8b 50 34 85 d2 74 76 48 89
RSP: 0018:ffffb148c2f3f968 EFLAGS: 00010246
RAX: ffff9fa5d3322000 RBX: ffff9fa5ccff9c08 RCX: 00000000b879ed29
RDX: ffffe97bd00025c0 RSI: ffffe97bd00025c0 RDI: ffff9fa5ccff9c08
RBP: ffffb148c2f3f9f0 R08: 0000000000000004 R09: 0000000000000004
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000200 R12: 0000000000000000
R13: 00007f16a18d5000 R14: ffff9fa5c48db6a8 R15: 0000000000000000
FS: 00007f16a1b54740(0000) GS:ffff9fa73df00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: ffffe97bd00025c8 CR3: 00000001048c6006 CR4: 0000000000172ef0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
? __die_body.cold+0x19/0x1f
? __die+0x2e/0x40
? page_fault_oops+0x157/0x2b0
? search_module_extables+0x53/0x80
? validate_page_before_insert+0x5/0xb0
? kernelmode_fixup_or_oops.isra.0+0x5f/0x70
? __bad_area_nosemaphore+0x16e/0x1b0
? bad_area_nosemaphore+0x16/0x20
? do_kern_addr_fault+0x77/0x90
? exc_page_fault+0x22b/0x230
? asm_exc_page_fault+0x2b/0x30
? validate_page_before_insert+0x5/0xb0
? vm_insert_pages+0x151/0x400
__rb_map_vma+0x21f/0x3f0
ring_buffer_map+0x21b/0x2f0
tracing_buffers_mmap+0x70/0xd0
__mmap_region+0x6f0/0xbd0
mmap_region+0x7f/0x130
do_mmap+0x475/0x610
vm_mmap_pgoff+0xf2/0x1d0
ksys_mmap_pgoff+0x166/0x200
__x64_sys_mmap+0x37/0x50
x64_sys_call+0x1670/0x1d70
do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x1d0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
The reason was that the code that maps the ring buffer pages to user space
has:
page = virt_to_page((void *)cpu_buffer->subbuf_ids[s]);
And uses that in:
vm_insert_pages(vma, vma->vm_start, pages, &nr_pages);
But virt_to_page() does not work with vmap()'d memory which is what the
persistent ring buffer has. It is rather trivial to allow this, but for
now just disable mmap() of instances that have their ring buffer from the
reserve_mem option.
If an mmap() is performed on a persistent buffer it will return -ENODEV
just like it would if the .mmap field wasn't defined in the
file_operations structure.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.12 | 6.12.16 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 6.12.16-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 6.12.16-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +32 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +28 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 9 | kernel-uek +34 | 6.12.0-101.33.4.3.el10uek | ELSA-2025-20530, ELSA-2025-20480 |
Advisories 3
- WID-SEC-2025-0453 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 11, 2026
- ELSA-2025-20530 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel security update (Oracle Linux 9) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Aug 18, 2025
- ELSA-2025-20480 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel security update (Oracle Linux 9) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jul 17, 2025