Kernel crash via shared unaligned altmap page
Published May 20, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel 6.6 allows local users to crash the kernel while removing an unaligned NVDIMM namespace. An unaligned section vmemmap start can make adjacent namespaces share an altmap page, which the earlier namespace later misclassifies and frees as RAM. Low-privileged local access and a PowerPC Book3S radix system with the affected namespace layout are required; triggering causes a kernel crash.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel 6.6 allows local users to crash the kernel while removing an unaligned NVDIMM namespace. An unaligned section vmemmap start can make adjacent namespaces share an altmap page, which the earlier namespace later misclassifies and frees as RAM. Low-privileged local access and a PowerPC Book3S radix system with the affected namespace layout are required; triggering causes a kernel crash.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-37922
- Published
- May 20, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 20, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 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=368a0590d954a659b16ab945328ada0cc10f93a0 <400be767deaf31a073c6d14c5d151ae5ac2a60e2
- Affected versionversion=368a0590d954a659b16ab945328ada0cc10f93a0 <7f5476d80f2cb364701cd1fa138a14b241ca99e9
- Affected versionversion=368a0590d954a659b16ab945328ada0cc10f93a0 <9a8d4d7072d4df108479b1adc4b0840e96f6f61d
- Affected versionversion=368a0590d954a659b16ab945328ada0cc10f93a0 <9cf7e13fecbab0894f6986fc6986ab2eba8de52e
- Affected versionversion=6.6
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
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