CVE-2025-38434
Revert "riscv: Define TASK_SIZE_MAX for __access_ok()"
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.8 High
- Published
- Jul 25, 2025
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Reserved
- Apr 16, 2025
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.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.8 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | Linux |
Weaknesses
The record names no weakness.
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
LinuxLinux |
|
LinuxLinux |
|
References
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