Answer in brief
CVE-2025-40040 records a High severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in mm/ksm: fix flag-dropping behavior in ksm_madvise. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 7.8. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic), Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Product | Affected versions | Fixed versions |
|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | Not reported | Not reported |
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <850f1ea245bdc0ce6a3fd36bfb80d8cf9647cb71 || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <788e5385d0ff69cdba1cabccb9dab8d9647b9239 || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <b69f19244c2b6475c8a6eb72f0fb0d53509e48cd || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <41cb9fd904fe0c39d52e82dd84dc3c96b7aa9693 || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <92b82e232b8d8b116ac6e57aeae7a6033db92c60 || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <ac50c6e0a8f91a02b681af81abb2362fbb67cc18 || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <76385629f45740b7888f8fcd83bde955b10f61fe || >=63c17fb8e5a46a16e10e82005748837fd11a2024 <f04aad36a07cc17b7a5d5b9a2d386ce6fae63e93 | 850f1ea245bdc0ce6a3fd36bfb80d8cf9647cb71, 788e5385d0ff69cdba1cabccb9dab8d9647b9239, b69f19244c2b6475c8a6eb72f0fb0d53509e48cd, 41cb9fd904fe0c39d52e82dd84dc3c96b7aa9693, 92b82e232b8d8b116ac6e57aeae7a6033db92c60, ac50c6e0a8f91a02b681af81abb2362fbb67cc18, 76385629f45740b7888f8fcd83bde955b10f61fe, f04aad36a07cc17b7a5d5b9a2d386ce6fae63e93 |
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | 4.6 | Not reported |
Published upstream
Oct 28, 2025
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Oct 19, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Aug 5, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/ksm: fix flag-dropping behavior in ksm_madvise syzkaller discovered the following crash: (kernel BUG) [ 44.607039] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 44.607422] kernel BUG at mm/userfaultfd.c:2067! [ 44.608148] Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP DEBUG_PAGEALLOC KASAN NOPTI [ 44.608814] CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 2475 Comm: reproducer Not tainted 6.16.0-rc6 #1 PREEMPT(none) [ 44.609635] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 44.610695] RIP: 0010:userfaultfd_release_all+0x3a8/0x460 <snip other registers, drop unreliable trace> [ 44.617726] Call Trace: [ 44.617926] <TASK> [ 44.619284] userfaultfd_release+0xef/0x1b0 [ 44.620976] __fput+0x3f9/0xb60 [ 44.621240] fput_close_sync+0x110/0x210 [ 44.622222] __x64_sys_close+0x8f/0x120 [ 44.622530] do_syscall_64+0x5b/0x2f0 [ 44.622840] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 44.623244] RIP: 0033:0x7f365bb3f227 Kernel panics because it detects UFFD inconsistency during userfaultfd_release_all(). Specifically, a VMA which has a valid pointer to vma->vm_userfaultfd_ctx, but no UFFD flags in vma->vm_flags. The inconsistency is caused in ksm_madvise(): when user calls madvise() with MADV_UNMEARGEABLE on a VMA that is registered for UFFD in MINOR mode, it accidentally clears all flags stored in the upper 32 bits of vma->vm_flags. Assuming x86_64 kernel build, unsigned long is 64-bit and unsigned int and int are 32-bit wide. This setup causes the following mishap during the &= ~VM_MERGEABLE assignment. VM_MERGEABLE is a 32-bit constant of type unsigned int, 0x8000'0000. After ~ is applied, it becomes 0x7fff'ffff unsigned int, which is then promoted to unsigned long before the & operation. This promotion fills upper 32 bits with leading 0s, as we're doing unsigned conversion (and even for a signed conversion, this wouldn't help as the leading bit is 0). & operation thus ends up AND-ing vm_flags with 0x0000'0000'7fff'ffff instead of intended 0xffff'ffff'7fff'ffff and hence accidentally clears the upper 32-bits of its value. Fix it by changing `VM_MERGEABLE` constant to unsigned long, using the BIT() macro. Note: other VM_* flags are not affected: This only happens to the VM_MERGEABLE flag, as the other VM_* flags are all constants of type int and after ~ operation, they end up with leading 1 and are thus converted to unsigned long with leading 1s. Note 2: After commit 31defc3b01d9 ("userfaultfd: remove (VM_)BUG_ON()s"), this is no longer a kernel BUG, but a WARNING at the same place: [ 45.595973] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 2474 at mm/userfaultfd.c:2067 but the root-cause (flag-drop) remains the same. [[email protected]: rust bindgen wasn't able to handle BIT(), from Miguel]
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.