CVE-2025-40199: page_pool: Fix PP_MAGIC_MASK to avoid crashing on some 32-bit arches

Published Nov 12, 2025
·
Updated

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

pagepool: Fix PPMAGICMASK to avoid crashing on some 32-bit arches

Helge reported that the introduction of PPMAGICMASK let to crashes on boot on his 32-bit parisc machine. The cause of this is the mask is set too wide, so the pagepoolpageispp() incurs false positives which crashes the machine.

Just disabling the check in pagepoolispp() will lead to the pagepool code itself malfunctioning; so instead of doing this, this patch changes the define for PPDMAINDEXBITS to avoid mistaking arbitrary kernel pointers for pagepool-tagged pages.

The fix relies on the kernel pointers that alias with the ppmagic field always being above PAGEOFFSET. With this assumption, we can use the lowest bit of the value of PAGEOFFSET as the upper bound of the PPDMAINDEXMASK, which should avoid the false positives.

Because we cannot rely on PAGEOFFSET always being a compile-time constant, nor on it always being >0, we fall back to disabling the dmaindex storage when there are not enough bits available. This leaves us in the situation we were in before the patch in the Fixes tag, but only on a subset of architecture configurations. This seems to be the best we can do until the transition to page types in complete for pagepool pages.

v2: - Make sure there's at least 8 bits available and that the PAGEOFFSET bit calculation doesn't wrap

Affected Software

1 affected component
Linux Linux kernel

Event History

Nov 12, 2025
CVE Published
via MITRE·09:56 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·09:56 PM
DescriptionSeverity
Data Sourced
via NVD·10:15 PM
DescriptionSeverity

Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2025-40199?

CVE-2025-40199 has been classified as a moderate severity vulnerability affecting the Linux kernel.

2

How do I fix CVE-2025-40199?

To resolve CVE-2025-40199, update your Linux kernel to the latest version where the vulnerability has been patched.

3

What types of systems are affected by CVE-2025-40199?

CVE-2025-40199 affects 32-bit architectures, particularly those using the Linux kernel.

4

Is CVE-2025-40199 exploitable remotely?

CVE-2025-40199 is not considered remotely exploitable as it typically requires local access to the affected system.

5

What impact does CVE-2025-40199 have on system stability?

CVE-2025-40199 can lead to system crashes during boot on affected 32-bit architectures.

Contact

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