CVE-2025-39737

mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup()

Published Sep 11, 2025 CVSS 3.1 · 5.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup()

A soft lockup warning was observed on a relative small system x86-64
system with 16 GB of memory when running a debug kernel with kmemleak
enabled.

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 33s! [kworker/8:1:134]

The test system was running a workload with hot unplug happening in
parallel. Then kemleak decided to disable itself due to its inability to
allocate more kmemleak objects. The debug kernel has its
CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE set to 40,000.

The soft lockup happened in kmemleak_do_cleanup() when the existing
kmemleak objects were being removed and deleted one-by-one in a loop via a
workqueue. In this particular case, there are at least 40,000 objects
that need to be processed and given the slowness of a debug kernel and the
fact that a raw_spinlock has to be acquired and released in
__delete_object(), it could take a while to properly handle all these
objects.

As kmemleak has been disabled in this case, the object removal and
deletion process can be further optimized as locking isn't really needed.
However, it is probably not worth the effort to optimize for such an edge
case that should rarely happen. So the simple solution is to call
cond_resched() at periodic interval in the iteration loop to avoid soft
lockup.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4327-1 linux security update
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-4328-1 linux-6.1 security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6009-1 linux security update
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2025-28974 In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup() A soft lockup warning was observed on a relative small system x86-64 system with 16 GB of memory when running a debug kernel with kmemleak enabled. watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 33s! [kworker/8:1:134] The test system was running a workload with hot unplug happening in parallel. Then kemleak decided to disable itself due to its inability to allocate more kmemleak objects. The debug kernel has its CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE set to 40,000. The soft lockup happened in kmemleak_do_cleanup() when the existing kmemleak objects were being removed and deleted one-by-one in a loop via a workqueue. In this particular case, there are at least 40,000 objects that need to be processed and given the slowness of a debug kernel and the fact that a raw_spinlock has to be acquired and released in __delete_object(), it could take a while to properly handle all these objects. As kmemleak has been disabled in this case, the object removal and deletion process can be further optimized as locking isn't really needed. However, it is probably not worth the effort to optimize for such an edge case that should rarely happen. So the simple solution is to call cond_resched() at periodic interval in the iteration loop to avoid soft lockup.
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-2 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-3 Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7910-1 Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-4 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7910-2 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7909-5 Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7933-1 Linux kernel (KVM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-7938-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-2 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-1 Linux kernel (GCP) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-3 Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-4 Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-5 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-2 Linux kernel (GCP FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-6 Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8031-3 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8052-1 Linux kernel (Low Latency) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-7 Linux kernel (Low Latency NVIDIA) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8028-8 Linux kernel (IBM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8052-2 Linux kernel (Xilinx) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8074-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8074-2 Linux kernel (Azure FIPS) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8126-1 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Debian
Debian debian Linux
Weaknesses CWE-401
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc7:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.4:rc8:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.17:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Debian
Debian debian Linux
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Low

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup() A soft lockup warning was observed on a relative small system x86-64 system with 16 GB of memory when running a debug kernel with kmemleak enabled. watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 33s! [kworker/8:1:134] The test system was running a workload with hot unplug happening in parallel. Then kemleak decided to disable itself due to its inability to allocate more kmemleak objects. The debug kernel has its CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE set to 40,000. The soft lockup happened in kmemleak_do_cleanup() when the existing kmemleak objects were being removed and deleted one-by-one in a loop via a workqueue. In this particular case, there are at least 40,000 objects that need to be processed and given the slowness of a debug kernel and the fact that a raw_spinlock has to be acquired and released in __delete_object(), it could take a while to properly handle all these objects. As kmemleak has been disabled in this case, the object removal and deletion process can be further optimized as locking isn't really needed. However, it is probably not worth the effort to optimize for such an edge case that should rarely happen. So the simple solution is to call cond_resched() at periodic interval in the iteration loop to avoid soft lockup.
Title mm/kmemleak: avoid soft lockup in __kmemleak_do_cleanup()
References
Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
Linux
Published
Updated
Nov 5, 2026, 9:12 PM
Reserved
Apr 16, 2025, 7:20 AM
Status
Modified
Published
Sep 11, 2025, 5:15 PM
Modified
Nov 5, 2026, 10:17 PM
Severity
Low
Public date
Sep 11, 2025, 12:00 AM