vulnerability
Red Hat: CVE-2025-38017: kernel: fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | (AV:L/AC:M/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C) | Jun 18, 2025 | Jul 9, 2025 | Jul 10, 2025 |
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/eventpoll: fix endless busy loop after timeout has expired
After commit 0a65bc27bd64 ("eventpoll: Set epoll timeout if it's in
the future"), the following program would immediately enter a busy
loop in the kernel:
```
int main() {
int e = epoll_create1(0);
struct epoll_event event = {.events = EPOLLIN};
epoll_ctl(e, EPOLL_CTL_ADD, 0, &event);
const struct timespec timeout = {.tv_nsec = 1};
epoll_pwait2(e, &event, 1, &timeout, 0);
}
```
This happens because the given (non-zero) timeout of 1 nanosecond
usually expires before ep_poll() is entered and then
ep_schedule_timeout() returns false, but `timed_out` is never set
because the code line that sets it is skipped. This quickly turns
into a soft lockup, RCU stalls and deadlocks, inflicting severe
headaches to the whole system.
When the timeout has expired, we don't need to schedule a hrtimer, but
we should set the `timed_out` variable. Therefore, I suggest moving
the ep_schedule_timeout() check into the `timed_out` expression
instead of skipping it.
brauner: Note that there was an earlier fix by Joe Damato in response to
my bug report in [1].
Solution
References
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