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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Aug 16, 2025 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Nov 19, 2025

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

KVM: Allow CPU to reschedule while setting per-page memory attributes

When running an SEV-SNP guest with a sufficiently large amount of memory (1TB+),
the host can experience CPU soft lockups when running an operation in
kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes() to set memory attributes on the whole
range of guest memory.

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#8 stuck for 26s! [qemu-kvm:6372]
CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 6372 Comm: qemu-kvm Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.15.0-rc7.20250520.el9uek.rc1.x86_64 #1 PREEMPT(voluntary)
Hardware name: Oracle Corporation ORACLE SERVER E4-2c/Asm,MB Tray,2U,E4-2c, BIOS 78016600 11/13/2024
RIP: 0010:xas_create+0x78/0x1f0
Code: 00 00 00 41 80 fc 01 0f 84 82 00 00 00 ba 06 00 00 00 bd 06 00 00 00 49 8b 45 08 4d 8d 65 08 41 39 d6 73 20 83 ed 06 48 85 c0 <74> 67 48 89 c2 83 e2 03 48 83 fa 02 75 0c 48 3d 00 10 00 00 0f 87
RSP: 0018:ffffad890a34b940 EFLAGS: 00000286
RAX: ffff96f30b261daa RBX: ffffad890a34b9c8 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 000000000000001e RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
RBP: 0000000000000018 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffad890a356868
R13: ffffad890a356860 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffad890a356868
FS: 00007f5578a2a400(0000) GS:ffff97ed317e1000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007f015c70fb18 CR3: 00000001109fd006 CR4: 0000000000f70ef0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:

xas_store+0x58/0x630
__xa_store+0xa5/0x130
xa_store+0x2c/0x50
kvm_vm_set_mem_attributes+0x343/0x710 [kvm]
kvm_vm_ioctl+0x796/0xab0 [kvm]
__x64_sys_ioctl+0xa3/0xd0
do_syscall_64+0x8c/0x7a0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
RIP: 0033:0x7f5578d031bb
Code: ff ff ff 85 c0 79 9b 49 c7 c4 ff ff ff ff 5b 5d 4c 89 e0 41 5c c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 2d 4c 0f 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007ffe0a742b88 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000000004020aed2 RCX: 00007f5578d031bb
RDX: 00007ffe0a742c80 RSI: 000000004020aed2 RDI: 000000000000000b
RBP: 0000010000000000 R08: 0000010000000000 R09: 0000017680000000
R10: 0000000000000080 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575e5f95120
R13: 00007ffe0a742c80 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: 00005575e5f961e0

While looping through the range of memory setting the attributes,
call cond_resched() to give the scheduler a chance to run a higher
priority task on the runqueue if necessary and avoid staying in
kernel mode long enough to trigger the lockup.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 16, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 16, 2025
Last updated Nov 19, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(2nd percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Locking

The product does not properly acquire or release a lock on a resource, leading to unexpected resource state changes and behaviors. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-38506

GHSA ID

GHSA-8mcg-xrhw-92v3

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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