CVE-2025-38242: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: userfaultfd: fix race of userfaultfd_move and swap cache This commit fixes two kinds o

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: userfaultfd: fix race of userfaultfd_move and swap cache This commit fixes two kinds o

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: userfaultfd: fix race of userfaultfd_move and swap cache This commit fixes two kinds of races, they may have different results: Barry reported a BUG_ON in commit c50f8e6053b0, we may see the same BUG_ON if the filemap lookup returned NULL and folio is added to swap cache after that. If another kind of race is triggered (folio changed after lookup) we may see RSS counter is corrupted: [ 406.893936] BUG: Bad rss-counter state mm:ffff0000c5a9ddc0 type:MM_ANONPAGES val:-1 [ 406.894071] BUG: Bad rss-counter state mm:ffff0000c5a9ddc0 type:MM_SHMEMPAGES val:1 Because the folio is being accounted to the wrong VMA. I'm not sure if there will be any data corruption though, seems no. The issues above are critical already. On seeing a swap entry PTE, userfaultfd_move does a lockless swap cache lookup, and tries to move the found folio to the faulting vma. Currently, it relies on checking the PTE value to ensure that the moved folio still belongs to the src swap entry and that no new folio has been added to the swap cache, which turns out to be unreliable. While working and reviewing the swap table series with

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

What it means for a small business

Linux is on the computers, phones or browsers your team uses every day. Turn on automatic updates and restart: most of these fixes only take effect after a restart.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.13%, higher than 2% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 29, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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