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Unscored CVE-2025-68248 EUVD-2025-203648GHSA-98x7-gjfm-r896

vmw_balloon: indicate success when effectively deflating during migration

Published Dec 16, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: 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-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.17 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 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-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime 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-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.17 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 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-6.17 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-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

vmw_balloon: indicate success when effectively deflating during migration

When migrating a balloon page, we first deflate the old page to then
inflate the new page.

However, if inflating the new page succeeded, we effectively deflated the
old page, reducing the balloon size.

In that case, the migration actually worked: similar to migrating+
immediately deflating the new page. The old page will be freed back to
the buddy.

Right now, the core will leave the page be marked as isolated (as we
returned an error). When later trying to putback that page, we will run
into the WARN_ON_ONCE() in balloon_page_putback().

That handling was changed in commit 3544c4faccb8 ("mm/balloon_compaction:
stop using __ClearPageMovable()"); before that change, we would have
tolerated that way of handling it.

To fix it, let's just return 0 in that case, making the core effectively
just clear the "isolated" flag + freeing it back to the buddy as if the
migration succeeded. Note that the new page will also get freed when the
core puts the last reference.

Note that this also makes it all be more consistent: we will no longer
unisolate the page in the balloon driver while keeping it marked as being
isolated in migration core.

This was found by code inspection.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 6.17 6.17.6

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
Ubuntu 25.10 linux 6.17.0-14.14 USN-8029-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-aws +2 6.17.0-1007.7 USN-8030-1, USN-8029-2
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-azure +1 6.17.0-1008.8 USN-8029-3, USN-8029-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-azure-fde No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-realtime 6.17.0-1006.7 USN-8029-1
Ubuntu 25.10 linux-riscv 6.17.0-14.14.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws-6.17 +1 6.17.0-1007.7~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.17 6.17.0-1008.8~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.17 6.17.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.17 6.17.0-1011.11 USN-8048-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +10 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 —
Show 2 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-realtime-6.17 6.17.0-1006.7~24.04.1 —

Advisories 6

References