CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-21897 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: sched_ext: Fix pick_task_scx() picking non-queued tasks when it's called without balance() a6250aa251ea ("sched_ext: Handle cases where pick_task_scx() is called without preceding balance_scx()") added a workaround to handle the cases where pick_task_scx() is called without prececing balance_scx() which is due to a fair class bug where pick_taks_fair() may return NULL after a true return from balance_fair(). The workaround detects when pick_task_scx() is called without preceding balance_scx() and emulates SCX_RQ_BAL_KEEP and triggers kicking to avoid stalling. Unfortunately, the workaround code was testing whether @prev was on SCX to decide whether to keep the task running. This is incorrect as the task may be on SCX but no longer runnable. This could lead to a non-runnable task to be returned from pick_task_scx() which cause interesting confusions and failures. e.g. A common failure mode is the task ending up with (!on_rq && on_cpu) state which can cause potential wakers to busy loop, which can easily lead to deadlocks. Fix it by testing whether @prev has SCX_TASK_QUEUED set. This makes @prev_on_scx only used in…

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.1)
Published
2025-04-01
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-667

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 6.12
  • linux / linux_kernel / 6.14

Showing 3 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Race condition, TOCTOU, and lifecycle synchronization

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Check exposure

  • Map concurrent actors, shared state, lock boundaries, signals, callbacks, retries, and check-then-use sequences in the affected path.
  • Determine whether untrusted users can influence timing, object names, filesystem state, or repeated state transitions.
  • Identify clustered and multi-process behavior that repository-local tests may not represent.

Remediate safely

  • Make the sensitive state transition atomic or protect it with a consistently ordered synchronization primitive.
  • Perform authorization and invariant checks on the same authoritative object and transaction used for the operation.
  • Use unique private resources, safe ownership transfer, and idempotent operations; add deterministic concurrency regression tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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