{"id":"AZL-59094","summary":"CVE-2025-21693 affecting package kernel 6.6.126.1-1","details":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nmm: zswap: properly synchronize freeing resources during CPU hotunplug\n\nIn zswap_compress() and zswap_decompress(), the per-CPU acomp_ctx of the\ncurrent CPU at the beginning of the operation is retrieved and used\nthroughout.  However, since neither preemption nor migration are disabled,\nit is possible that the operation continues on a different CPU.\n\nIf the original CPU is hotunplugged while the acomp_ctx is still in use,\nwe run into a UAF bug as some of the resources attached to the acomp_ctx\nare freed during hotunplug in zswap_cpu_comp_dead() (i.e. \nacomp_ctx.buffer, acomp_ctx.req, or acomp_ctx.acomp).\n\nThe problem was introduced in commit 1ec3b5fe6eec (\"mm/zswap: move to use\ncrypto_acomp API for hardware acceleration\") when the switch to the\ncrypto_acomp API was made.  Prior to that, the per-CPU crypto_comp was\nretrieved using get_cpu_ptr() which disables preemption and makes sure the\nCPU cannot go away from under us.  Preemption cannot be disabled with the\ncrypto_acomp API as a sleepable context is needed.\n\nUse the acomp_ctx.mutex to synchronize CPU hotplug callbacks allocating\nand freeing resources with compression/decompression paths.  Make sure\nthat acomp_ctx.req is NULL when the resources are freed.  In the\ncompression/decompression paths, check if acomp_ctx.req is NULL after\nacquiring the mutex (meaning the CPU was offlined) and retry on the new\nCPU.\n\nThe initialization of acomp_ctx.mutex is moved from the CPU hotplug\ncallback to the pool initialization where it belongs (where the mutex is\nallocated).  In addition to adding clarity, this makes sure that CPU\nhotplug cannot reinitialize a mutex that is already locked by\ncompression/decompression.\n\nPreviously a fix was attempted by holding cpus_read_lock() [1].  This\nwould have caused a potential deadlock as it is possible for code already\nholding the lock to fall into reclaim and enter zswap (causing a\ndeadlock).  A fix was also attempted using SRCU for synchronization, but\nJohannes pointed out that synchronize_srcu() cannot be used in CPU hotplug\nnotifiers [2].\n\nAlternative fixes that were considered/attempted and could have worked:\n- Refcounting the per-CPU acomp_ctx. This involves complexity in\n  handling the race between the refcount dropping to zero in\n  zswap_[de]compress() and the refcount being re-initialized when the\n  CPU is onlined.\n- Disabling migration before getting the per-CPU acomp_ctx [3], but\n  that's discouraged and is a much bigger hammer than needed, and could\n  result in subtle performance issues.\n\n[1]https://lkml.kernel.org/20241219212437.2714151-1-yosryahmed@google.com/\n[2]https://lkml.kernel.org/20250107074724.1756696-2-yosryahmed@google.com/\n[3]https://lkml.kernel.org/20250107222236.2715883-2-yosryahmed@google.com/\n\n[yosryahmed@google.com: remove comment]","modified":"2026-04-01T05:19:50.363239Z","published":"2025-02-10T16:15:38Z","upstream":["CVE-2025-21693"],"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21693"}],"affected":[{"package":{"name":"kernel","ecosystem":"Azure Linux:3","purl":"pkg:rpm/azure-linux/kernel"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"last_affected":"6.6.126.1-1"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData/blob/main/osv/AZL-59094.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5"}