Local crash via userfaultfd error-pointer misuse
Published May 1, 2025 · Updated May 23, 2026
Invalid pointer handling in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the system during userfaultfd release. An allocation failure during VMA commit merging returns an error value that the userfaultfd release path treats as a VMA pointer instead of abandoning the merge without modifying VMAs. Reachability requires low-privileged local access and the allocation-failure condition; the documented consequence is loss of availability without confidentiality or integrity impact.
Summary
What happened
Invalid pointer handling in affected Linux kernels allows local users to crash the system during userfaultfd release. An allocation failure during VMA commit merging returns an error value that the userfaultfd release path treats as a VMA pointer instead of abandoning the merge without modifying VMAs. Reachability requires low-privileged local access and the allocation-failure condition; the documented consequence is loss of availability without confidentiality or integrity impact.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-37760
- Published
- May 1, 2025
- Updated
- May 23, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 1, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 23, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=47b16d0462a460000b8f05dfb1292377ac48f3ca <41e6ddcaa0f18dda4c3fadf22533775a30d6f72f
- Affected versionversion=47b16d0462a460000b8f05dfb1292377ac48f3ca <c103a75c61648203d731e3b97a6fbeea4003cb15
- Affected versionversion=53fd215f7886a1e8dea5a9ca1391dbb697fff601
- Affected versionversion=6.12.19 <6.12.25
- Affected versionversion=6.13.7 <6.14
- Affected versionversion=6.14
- Affected versionversion=79636d2981b066acd945117387a9533f56411f6f <b906c1ad25adce6ff35be19b65a1aa7d960fe1d7
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo