Local system crash via stale page-table reuse
Published Sep 11, 2025 · Updated Sep 11, 2025
Use-after-free in affected Linux kernel branches allows local users to crash debug kernels through stale page-table reuse. destroy_args() in mm/debug_vm_pgtable.c frees manually allocated page-table structures without first calling the matching *_clear operations, leaving live entries that a later mm_struct can inherit. Reachability requires CONFIG_DEBUG_VM_PGTABLE=y and rare allocator reuse; successful triggering can corrupt kernel memory or panic the host.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in affected Linux kernel branches allows local users to crash debug kernels through stale page-table reuse. destroy_args() in mm/debug_vm_pgtable.c frees manually allocated page-table structures without first calling the matching *_clear operations, leaving live entries that a later mm_struct can inherit. Reachability requires CONFIG_DEBUG_VM_PGTABLE=y and rare allocator reuse; successful triggering can corrupt kernel memory or panic the host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-39776
- Published
- Sep 11, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 11, 2025
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 11, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 11, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <47d2a149611b8a94d24add9868c442a4af278658
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <561171db3b3eb759ba3f284dba7a76f4476ade03
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <61a9f2e5c49f05e3ea2c16674540a075a1b4be6f
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <63962ff932ef359925b94be2a88df6b4fd4fed0a
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <7bf57a0709cd7c9088cea8de023d6f4fbf2518b0
- Affected versionversion=3c9b84f044a9e54cf56d1b2c9b80a2d2ce56d70a <dde30854bddfb5d69f30022b53c5955a41088b33
- Affected versionversion=5.15
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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