CVE-2025-21919

About vulnerability

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

sched/fair: Fix potential memory corruption in child_cfs_rq_on_list

child_cfs_rq_on_list attempts to convert a ‘prev’ pointer to a cfs_rq. This ‘prev’ pointer can originate from struct rq’s leaf_cfs_rq_list, making the conversion invalid and potentially leading to memory corruption. Depending on the relative positions of leaf_cfs_rq_list and the task group (tg) pointer within the struct, this can cause a memory fault or access garbage data.

The issue arises in list_add_leaf_cfs_rq, where both cfs_rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list and rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list are added to the same leaf list. Also, rq->tmp_alone_branch can be set to rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list.

This adds a check if (prev == &rq->leaf_cfs_rq_list) after the main conditional in child_cfs_rq_on_list. This ensures that the container_of operation will convert a correct cfs_rq struct.

This check is sufficient because only cfs_rqs on the same CPU are added to the list, so verifying the ‘prev’ pointer against the current rq’s list head is enough.

Fixes a potential memory corruption issue that due to current struct layout might not be manifesting as a crash but could lead to unpredictable behavior when the layout changes.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU

Affected packages:

kernel @ 5.14.0 (+4 more)

Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.