CVE-2025-21896

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

fuse: revert back to __readahead_folio() for readahead

In commit 3eab9d7bc2f4 (fuse: convert readahead to use folios), the logic was converted to using the new folio readahead code, which drops the reference on the folio once it is locked, using an inferred reference on the folio. Previously we held a reference on the folio for the entire duration of the readpages call.

This is fine, however for the case for splice pipe responses where we will remove the old folio and splice in the new folio (see fuse_try_move_page()), we assume that there is a reference held on the folio for ap->folios, which is no longer the case.

To fix this, revert back to __readahead_folio() which allows us to hold the reference on the folio for the duration of readpages until either we drop the reference ourselves in fuse_readpages_end() or the reference is dropped after its replaced in the page cache in the splice case. This will fix the UAF bug that was reported.

Weakness

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0c67c37e1710b2a8f61c8a02db95a51fe577e2c1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/60db11f1b7fba4a66b117ea998d965818784a98d