In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
x86/kexec: fix memory leak of elf header buffer
This is reported by kmemleak detector:
unreferenced object 0xffffc900002a9000 (size 4096): comm "kexec", pid 14950, jiffies 4295110793 (age 373.951s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .ELF............ 04 00 3e 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..>............. backtrace: [<0000000016a8ef9f>] __vmalloc_node_range+0x101/0x170 [<000000002b66b6c0>] __vmalloc_node+0xb4/0x160 [<00000000ad40107d>] crash_prepare_elf64_headers+0x8e/0xcd0 [<0000000019afff23>] crash_load_segments+0x260/0x470 [<0000000019ebe95c>] bzImage64_load+0x814/0xad0 [<0000000093e16b05>] arch_kexec_kernel_image_load+0x1be/0x2a0 [<000000009ef2fc88>] kimage_file_alloc_init+0x2ec/0x5a0 [<0000000038f5a97a>] __do_sys_kexec_file_load+0x28d/0x530 [<0000000087c19992>] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [<0000000066e063a4>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae
In crash_prepare_elf64_headers(), a buffer is allocated via vmalloc() to store elf headers. While it's not freed back to system correctly when kdump kernel is reloaded or unloaded. Then memory leak is caused. Fix it by introducing x86 specific function arch_kimage_file_post_load_cleanup(), and freeing the buffer there.
And also remove the incorrect elf header buffer freeing code. Before calling arch specific kexec_file loading function, the image instance has been initialized. So 'image->elf_headers' must be NULL. It doesn't make sense to free the elf header buffer in the place.
Three different people have reported three bugs about the memory leak on x86_64 inside Redhat.
CVSS Details
- CVSS 3.1 Base Score: 5.5
- CVSS 3.1 Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade kernel-develUpgrade kernel-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-headersUpgrade kernel-livepatch-5.10.236-227.928Upgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64Upgrade perf-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-tools-develUpgrade perfUpgrade python-perfUpgrade kernel-livepatch-5.15.50-23.125Upgrade kernel-tools-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64Upgrade bpftool-debuginfoUpgrade python-perf-debuginfoUpgrade bpftoolUpgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade kernel | Apr 30, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade linux | Feb 27, 2025 | Feb 27, 2025 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp11 | — | Upgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade kernelUpgrade kernel-abi-stablelistsUpgrade python3-perfUpgrade kernel-tools-libsUpgrade bpftool | Jun 13, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp12 | — | Upgrade python3-perfUpgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade kernel-abi-stablelistsUpgrade kernel-tools-libsUpgrade bpftoolUpgrade kernel | Jul 21, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
| Huawei Euleros 2_0_sp13 | — | Upgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade kernel-tools-libsUpgrade kernelUpgrade bpftoolUpgrade python3-perfUpgrade kernel-abi-stablelists | Jul 1, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade linux-raspiUpgrade linux-gkeopUpgrade linux-lowlatencyUpgrade linux-realtimeUpgrade linux-kvmUpgrade linux-gcpUpgrade linux-ibmUpgrade linux-oracle-5.15Upgrade linux-gcp-5.15Upgrade linux-gkeUpgrade linux-azure-5.15Upgrade linux-azure-fde-5.15Upgrade linux-oracleUpgrade linux-riscv-5.15Upgrade linux-intel-iotgUpgrade linux-nvidiaUpgrade linux-intel-iotg-5.15Upgrade linux-aws-5.15Upgrade linux-azureUpgrade linux-hwe-5.15Upgrade linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15Upgrade linux-awsUpgrade linux | Mar 19, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
| Vmware Photon_os | — | Use 'tdnf update' to upgrade all packages to the latest version. | Sep 22, 2025 | Feb 26, 2025 |
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