Vulnerability details
CVE-2025-38434
Revert "riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()"
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()" This reverts commit ad5643cf2f69 ("riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()"). This commit changes TASK_SIZE_MAX to be LONG_MAX to optimize access_ok(), because the previous TASK_SIZE_MAX (default to TASK_SIZE) requires some computation. The reasoning was that all user addresses are less than LONG_MAX, and all kernel addresses are greater than LONG_MAX. Therefore access_ok() can filter kernel addresses. Addresses between TASK_SIZE and LONG_MAX are not valid user addresses, but access_ok() let them pass. That was thought to be okay, because they are not valid addresses at hardware level. Unfortunately, one case is missed: get_user_pages_fast() happily accepts addresses between TASK_SIZE and LONG_MAX. futex(), for instance, uses get_user_pages_fast(). This causes the problem reported by Robert [1]. Therefore, revert this commit. TASK_SIZE_MAX is changed to the default: TASK_SIZE. This unfortunately reduces performance, because TASK_SIZE is more expensive to compute compared to LONG_MAX. But correctness first, we can think about optimization later, if required.
CVSS scores
| Score | Version | Source | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.8High | 3.1 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) (Linux) | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.10 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
| Linux | Linux | ad5643cf2f699989daa85d909403febd6712fccb ≤ v < fe30c30bf3bb68d4a4d8c7c814769857b5c973e6 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
| Linux | Linux | ad5643cf2f699989daa85d909403febd6712fccb ≤ v < f8b1898748dfeb4f9b67b6a6d661f354b9de3523 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
| Linux | Linux | ad5643cf2f699989daa85d909403febd6712fccb ≤ v < 890ba5be6335dbbbc99af14ea007befb5f83f174 | CVEProject cvelistV5 (CNA) |
References and advisories
3Details
- Published
- 2025-07-25
- Last updated
- 2026-08-05
- State
- Published
- Assigner (CNA)
- Linux
Exploit prediction (EPSS)
Weaknesses (CWE)
- —