CVE-2025-38563

Technical Description

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

perf/core: Prevent VMA split of buffer mappings

The perf mmap code is careful about mmap()'ing the user page with the

ringbuffer and additionally the auxiliary buffer, when the event supports

it. Once the first mapping is established, subsequent mapping have to use

the same offset and the same size in both cases. The reference counting for

the ringbuffer and the auxiliary buffer depends on this being correct.

Though perf does not prevent that a related mapping is split via mmap(2),

munmap(2) or mremap(2). A split of a VMA results in perf_mmap_open() calls,

which take reference counts, but then the subsequent perf_mmap_close()

calls are not longer fulfilling the offset and size checks. This leads to

reference count leaks.

As perf already has the requirement for subsequent mappings to match the

initial mapping, the obvious consequence is that VMA splits, caused by

resizing of a mapping or partial unmapping, have to b

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from linux. Update linux_kernel to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Affected Products

References