CVE-2025-71139: kernel/kexec: fix IMA when allocation happens in CMA area

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-01-14 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kernel/kexec: fix IMA when allocation happens in CMA area *** Bug description *** When I tested kexec with the latest kernel, I ran into the following warning: [ 40.712410] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 40.712576] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 1562 at kernel/kexec_core.c:1001 kimage_map_segment+0x144/0x198 [...] [ 40.816047] Call trace: [ 40.818498] kimage_map_segment+0x144/0x198 (P) [ 40.823221] ima_kexec_post_load+0x58/0xc0 [ 40.827246] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x29c/0x368 [...] [ 40.855423] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- *** How to reproduce *** This bug is only triggered when the kexec target address is allocated in the CMA area. If no CMA area is reserved in the kernel, use the "cma=" option in the kernel command line to reserve one. *** Root cause *** The commit 07d24902977e ("kexec: enable CMA based contiguous allocation") allocates the kexec target address directly on the CMA area to avoid copying during the jump. In this case, there is no IND_SOURCE for the kexec segment. But the current implementation of kimage_map_segment() assumes that IND_SOURCE pages exist and map them into a contiguous virtual address by vmap(). *** Solution *** If IMA segment is allocated in the CMA area, use its page_address() directly.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.17.1 before 6.18.4; 6.17, 6.19-rc1, 6.19-rc2, 6.19-rc3, 6.19-rc4, 6.19-rc5 (+3) — fixed in 6.18.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.18.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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