Description

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

sched/eevdf: Fix se->slice being set to U64_MAX and resulting crash

There is a code path in dequeue_entities() that can set the slice of a
sched_entity to U64_MAX, which sometimes results in a crash.

The offending case is when dequeue_entities() is called to dequeue a
delayed group entity, and then the entity's parent's dequeue is delayed.
In that case:

1. In the if (entity_is_task(se)) else block at the beginning of
dequeue_entities(), slice is set to
cfs_rq_min_slice(group_cfs_rq(se)). If the entity was delayed, then
it has no queued tasks, so cfs_rq_min_slice() returns U64_MAX.
2. The first for_each_sched_entity() loop dequeues the entity.
3. If the entity was its parent's only child, then the next iteration
tries to dequeue the parent.
4. If the parent's dequeue needs to be delayed, then it breaks from the
first for_each_sched_entity() loop _without updating slice_.
5. The second for_each_sched_entity() loop sets the parent's ->slice to
the saved slice, which is still U64_MAX.

This throws off subsequent calculations with potentially catastrophic
results. A manifestation we saw in production was:

6. In update_entity_lag(), se->slice is used to calculate limit, which
ends up as a huge negative number.
7. limit is used in se->vlag = clamp(vlag, -limit, limit). Because limit
is negative, vlag > limit, so se->vlag is set to the same huge
negative number.
8. In place_entity()...

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-37821

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux

Product: Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.02% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 4.25% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-06-06 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-37821
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/50a665496881262519f115f1bfe5822f30580eb0
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bbce3de72be56e4b5f68924b7da9630cc89aa1a8

Timeline