CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2025-21984 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 4.7

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: fix kernel BUG when userfaultfd_move encounters swapcache userfaultfd_move() checks whether the PTE entry is present or a swap entry. - If the PTE entry is present, move_present_pte() handles folio migration by setting: src_folio->index = linear_page_index(dst_vma, dst_addr); - If the PTE entry is a swap entry, move_swap_pte() simply copies the PTE to the new dst_addr. This approach is incorrect because, even if the PTE is a swap entry, it can still reference a folio that remains in the swap cache. This creates a race window between steps 2 and 4. 1. add_to_swap: The folio is added to the swapcache. 2. try_to_unmap: PTEs are converted to swap entries. 3. pageout: The folio is written back. 4. Swapcache is cleared. If userfaultfd_move() occurs in the window between steps 2 and 4, after the swap PTE has been moved to the destination, accessing the destination triggers do_swap_page(), which may locate the folio in the swapcache. However, since the folio's index has not been updated to match the destination VMA, do_swap_page() will detect a mismatch. This can result in two critical issues depending on the system c…

Severity
Medium
CVSS
4.7 (3.1)
Published
2025-04-01
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
linux/kernel
Weaknesses
CWE-362

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • linux / linux_kernel / 6.14

Showing 2 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

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

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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