In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: uprobes: Reject the shared zeropage in uprobe_write_opcode() We triggered the following crash in syzkaller tests: BUG: Bad page state in process syz.7.38 pfn:1eff3 page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x1eff3 flags: 0x3fffff00004004(referenced|reserved|node=0|zone=1|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) raw: 003fffff00004004 ffffe6c6c07bfcc8 ffffe6c6c07bfcc8 0000000000000000 raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000fffffffe 0000000000000000 page dumped because: PAGE_FLAGS_CHECK_AT_FREE flag(s) set Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.13.0-1ubuntu1.1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x32/0x50 bad_page+0x69/0xf0 free_unref_page_prepare+0x401/0x500 free_unref_page+0x6d/0x1b0 uprobe_write_opcode+0x460/0x8e0 install_breakpoint.part.0+0x51/0x80 register_for_each_vma+0x1d9/0x2b0 __uprobe_register+0x245/0x300 bpf_uprobe_multi_link_attach+0x29b/0x4f0 link_create+0x1e2/0x280 __sys_bpf+0x75f/0xac0 __x64_sys_bpf+0x1a/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x56/0x100 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x78/0xe2 BUG: Bad rss-counter state mm:00000000452453e0 type:MM_FILEPAGES val:-1 The following syzkaller test case can be used to reproduce: r2 = creat(&(0x7f0000000000)='./file0\x00', 0x8) write$nbd(r2, &(0x7f0000000580)=ANY=[], 0x10) r4 = openat(0xffffffffffffff9c, &(0x7f0000000040)='./file0\x00', 0x42, 0x0) mmap$IORING_OFF_SQ_RING(&(0x7f0000ffd000/0x3000)=nil, 0x3000, 0x0, 0x12, r4, 0x0) r5 = userfaultfd(0x80801) ioctl$UFFDIO_API(r5, 0xc018aa3f, &(0x7f0000000040)={0xaa, 0x20}) r6 = userfaultfd(0x80801) ioctl$UFFDIO_API(r6, 0xc018aa3f, &(0x7f0000000140)) ioctl$UFFDIO_REGISTER(r6, 0xc020aa00, &(0x7f0000000100)={{&(0x7f0000ffc000/0x4000)=nil, 0x4000}, 0x2}) ioctl$UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE(r5, 0xc020aa04, &(0x7f0000000000)={{&(0x7f0000ffd000/0x1000)=nil, 0x1000}}) r7 = bpf$PROG_LOAD(0x5, &(0x7f0000000140)={0x2, 0x3, &(0x7f0000000200)=ANY=[@ANYBLOB="1800000000120000000000000000000095"], &(0x7f0000000000)='GPL\x00', 0x7, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, '\x00', 0x0, @fallback=0x30, 0xffffffffffffffff, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x10, 0x0, @void, @value}, 0x94) bpf$BPF_LINK_CREATE_XDP(0x1c, &(0x7f0000000040)={r7, 0x0, 0x30, 0x1e, @val=@uprobe_multi={&(0x7f0000000080)='./file0\x00', &(0x7f0000000100)=[0x2], 0x0, 0x0, 0x1}}, 0x40) The cause is that zero pfn is set to the PTE without increasing the RSS count in mfill_atomic_pte_zeropage() and the refcount of zero folio does not increase accordingly. Then, the operation on the same pfn is performed in uprobe_write_opcode()->__replace_page() to unconditional decrease the RSS count and old_folio's refcount. Therefore, two bugs are introduced: 1. The RSS count is incorrect, when process exit, the check_mm() report error "Bad rss-count". 2. The reserved folio (zero folio) is freed when folio->refcount is zero, then free_pages_prepare->free_page_is_bad() report error "Bad page state". There is more, the following warning could also theoretically be triggered: __replace_page() -> ... -> folio_remove_rmap_pte() -> VM_WARN_ON_FOLIO(is_zero_folio(folio), folio) Considering that uprobe hit on the zero folio is a very rare case, just reject zero old folio immediately after get_user_page_vma_remote(). [ mingo: Cleaned up the changelog ]
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21881 is rated Low Risk (24/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-05-05 | 0.09% | 0.02% | -0.07% |
| 2 | 2026-01-21 | 0.03% | 0.09% | +0.06% |
| 3 | 2025-08-23 | — | 0.03% | — |
Full EPSS history (5 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2025-21881 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5, open 1. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21881 |
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21881 |
suse
|
medium | — | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21881/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2025-21881 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, ignored 154, released 138, needed 74, not-affected 40. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21881 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 3.5, < 6.1.130 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.2, < 6.6.81 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.7, < 6.12.18 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | >= 6.13, < 6.13.6 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| linux | linux_kernel | 6.14 | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |