CVE-2025-21851

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

bpf: Fix softlockup in arena_map_free on 64k page kernel

On an aarch64 kernel with CONFIG_PAGE_SIZE_64KB=y, arena_htab tests cause a segmentation fault and soft lockup. The same failure is not observed with 4k pages on aarch64.

It turns out arena_map_free() is calling apply_to_existing_page_range() with the address returned by bpf_arena_get_kern_vm_start(). If this address is not page-aligned the code ends up calling apply_to_pte_range() with that unaligned address causing soft lockup.

Fix it by round up GUARD_SZ to PAGE_SIZE << 1 so that the division by 2 in bpf_arena_get_kern_vm_start() returns a page-aligned value.

The default Red Hat Enterprise Linux kernel prevents unprivileged users from being able to use eBPF by the kernel.unprivileged_bpf_disabled sysctl. This would require a privileged user with CAP_SYS_ADMIN or root to be able to abuse this flaw reducing its attack space.

For the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 to confirm the current state, inspect the sysctl with the command:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/unprivileged_bpf_disabled

The setting of 1 would mean that unprivileged users can not use eBPF, mitigating the flaw.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.