CVE-2025-37859 | page_pool: avoid infinite loop to schedule delayed worker

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: page_pool: avoid infinite loop to schedule delayed worker We noticed the kworker in page_pool_release_retry() was waken up repeatedly and infinitely in production because of the buggy driver causing the inflight less than 0 and warning us in page_pool_inflight()[1]. Since the inflight value goes negative, it means we should not expect the whole page_pool to get back to work normally. This patch mitigates the adverse effect by not rescheduling the kworker when detecting the inflight negative in page_pool_release_retry(). [1] [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] Negative(-51446) inflight packet-pages ... [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] Call Trace: [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] page_pool_release_retry+0x23/0x70 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] process_one_work+0x1b1/0x370 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] worker_thread+0x37/0x3a0 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] kthread+0x11a/0x140 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ? process_one_work+0x370/0x370 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ? __kthread_cancel_work+0x40/0x40 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40 [Mon Feb 10 20:36:11 2025] ---[ end trace ebffe800f33e7e34 ]--- Note: before this patch, the above calltrace would flood the dmesg due to repeated reschedule of release_dw kworker.

Published: 2025-05-09 Last update: 2025-11-12 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-37859 is rated Low Risk (27.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.24%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-37859

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 2026-06-15 0.06% 0.24% +0.19%
2 2026-03-05 0.01% 0.06% +0.04%
3 2025-11-13 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-37859

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-37859

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-37859

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-37859 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 6. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-37859
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37859
suse medium — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-37859/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-37859 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 168, released 162, needed 45, not-affected 28, needs-triage 2, pending 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-37859

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-37859

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.3.18, < 5.4 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.4.5, < 5.4.293 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.237 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.181 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.135 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.88 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.24 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.12 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.14, < 6.14.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-37859

URL Tags
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/43130d02baa137033c25297aaae95fd0edc41654 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7204335d1991c23fc615ab76f31f175748a578e1 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/738d1812ec2e395e953258aea912ddd867d11a13 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90e089a64504982f8d62f223027cb9f903781f78 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/91522aba56e9fcdf64da25ffef9b27f8fad48e0f Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95f17738b86fd198924d874a5639bcdc49c7e5b8 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f71db4fb82deb889e0bac4a51b34daea7d506a3 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c3c7c57017ce1d4b2d3788c1fc59e7e39026e158 Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e74e5aa33228c5e2cb4fc80ad103541a7b7805ec Patch
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00045.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
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