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Unscored CVE-2025-21816 EUVD-2025-5973GHSA-rp2m-6293-6r8v

hrtimers: Force migrate away hrtimers queued after CPUHP_AP_HRTIMERS_DYING

Published Feb 27, 2025 · Updated May 23, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-iot Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

hrtimers: Force migrate away hrtimers queued after CPUHP_AP_HRTIMERS_DYING

hrtimers are migrated away from the dying CPU to any online target at
the CPUHP_AP_HRTIMERS_DYING stage in order not to delay bandwidth timers
handling tasks involved in the CPU hotplug forward progress.

However wakeups can still be performed by the outgoing CPU after
CPUHP_AP_HRTIMERS_DYING. Those can result again in bandwidth timers being
armed. Depending on several considerations (crystal ball power management
based election, earliest timer already enqueued, timer migration enabled or
not), the target may eventually be the current CPU even if offline. If that
happens, the timer is eventually ignored.

The most notable example is RCU which had to deal with each and every of
those wake-ups by deferring them to an online CPU, along with related
workarounds:

_ e787644caf76 (rcu: Defer RCU kthreads wakeup when CPU is dying)
_ 9139f93209d1 (rcu/nocb: Fix RT throttling hrtimer armed from offline CPU)
_ f7345ccc62a4 (rcu/nocb: Fix rcuog wake-up from offline softirq)

The problem isn't confined to RCU though as the stop machine kthread
(which runs CPUHP_AP_HRTIMERS_DYING) reports its completion at the end
of its work through cpu_stop_signal_done() and performs a wake up that
eventually arms the deadline server timer:

WARNING: CPU: 94 PID: 588 at kernel/time/hrtimer.c:1086 hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x289/0x2d0
CPU: 94 UID: 0 PID: 588 Comm: migration/94 Not tainted
Stopper: multi_cpu_stop+0x0/0x120 <- stop_machine_cpuslocked+0x66/0xc0
RIP: 0010:hrtimer_start_range_ns+0x289/0x2d0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
start_dl_timer
enqueue_dl_entity
dl_server_start
enqueue_task_fair
enqueue_task
ttwu_do_activate
try_to_wake_up
complete
cpu_stopper_thread

Instead of providing yet another bandaid to work around the situation, fix
it in the hrtimers infrastructure instead: always migrate away a timer to
an online target whenever it is enqueued from an offline CPU.

This will also allow to revert all the above RCU disgraceful hacks.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.1.68 – < 6.1.141, 6.6.7 – < 6.6.93, 4.19.302 – < 4.20, 5.4.264 – < 5.5, 5.10.204 – < 5.11, 5.15.143 – < 5.16, 6.7 6.1.141

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.12.15-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.15-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.147-1 DSA-5973-1
Debian 11 linux-6.1 6.1.153-1~deb11u1 DLA-4328-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-64.67 USN-7651-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1032.34 USN-7651-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1034.39 USN-7737-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-nvidia 6.8.0-1022.23 USN-7737-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1033.35 USN-7651-4
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.11 +1 6.11.0-1015.15~24.04.1 USN-7521-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1028.32 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1015.17 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.11 6.11.0-26.26~24.04.1 USN-7521-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1029.29 USN-7651-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-lowlatency 6.8.0-64.67.1 USN-7651-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 6.11.0-1014.15~24.04.1 USN-7521-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1031.34 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.11 6.11.0-1010.10 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1031.34.1 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 6.8.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.11 6.11.0-1022.22 USN-7521-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.8 6.8.0-1031.31 USN-7651-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1029.30 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1031.35 USN-7651-6
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-xilinx 6.8.0-1017.18 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1032.34~22.04.1 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1034.39~22.04.1 USN-7737-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1033.35~22.04.1 USN-7651-4
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 +1 6.8.0-64.67~22.04.1 USN-7653-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1029.29~22.04.1 USN-7651-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-64.67.1~22.04.1 USN-7651-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1031.34~22.04.1 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1029.30~22.04.1 USN-7651-3
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Show 8 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2026.27 USN-7651-5
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1025.26 USN-7652-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1025.26~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips 6.8.0-78.78+fips1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux +21 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS linux-aws-5.4 +6 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-64kb +7 6.12.0-160000.7.1 SUSE-SU-2025:21147-1
SLES for SAP 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21147-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-64kb +7 6.12.0-160000.7.1 SUSE-SU-2025:21180-1, SUSE-SU-2025:21147-1
SLES 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21147-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 SUSE-SU-2025:21080-1
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-rt +5 6.12.0-160000.7.1 SUSE-SU-2026:20561-1, SUSE-SU-2025:21080-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-default-base 6.12.0-160000.6.1.160000.2.4 openSUSE-SU-2025:20091-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 kernel-rt +10 6.12.0-160000.7.1 openSUSE-SU-2025:20091-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.1.141-155.222 1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2025-1037
Amazon Linux 2023 perf +14 6.1.141-155.222.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2025-1037

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) kernel No fix yet —

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 kernel-uek +34 6.12.0-101.33.4.3.el10uek ELSA-2025-20530, ELSA-2025-20480

Advisories 22

References