CVE-2025-40201

CVE-2025-40201

High · published November 13, 2025

CVSS v3.1
7.8
EPSS
0%
Percentile
4.1
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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

kernel/sys.c: fix the racy usage of task_lock(tsk->group_leader) in sys_prlimit64() paths

The usage of task_lock(tsk->group_leader) in sys_prlimit64()->do_prlimit()

path is very broken.

sys_prlimit64() does get_task_struct(tsk) but this only protects task_struct

itself. If tsk != current and tsk is not a leader, this process can exit/exec

and task_lock(tsk->group_leader) may use the already freed task_struct.

Another problem is that sys_prlimit64() can race with mt-exec which changes

->group_leader. In this case do_prlimit() may take the wrong lock, or (worse)

->group_leader may change between task_lock() and task_unlock().

Change sys_prlimit64() to take tasklist_lock when necessary. This is not

nice, but I don't see a better fix for -stable.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
7.8 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00153 · 4.1th percentile
Published
2025-11-13T03:15Z
References (5)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 12 NOV 21:56Z
    kernel/sys.c: fix the racy usage of task_lock(tsk->group_leader) in sys_prlimit64() paths
    cvelistv5