CVE-2025-71078

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

powerpc/64s/slb: Fix SLB multihit issue during SLB preload

On systems using the hash MMU, there is a software SLB preload cache that mirrors the entries loaded into the hardware SLB buffer. This preload cache is subject to periodic eviction — typically after every 256 context switches — to remove old entry.

To optimize performance, the kernel skips switchmmucontext() in switchmmirqsoff() when the prev and next mmstruct are the same. However, on hash MMU systems, this can lead to inconsistencies between the hardware SLB and the software preload cache.

If an SLB entry for a process is evicted from the software cache on one CPU, and the same process later runs on another CPU without executing switchmmucontext(), the hardware SLB may retain stale entries. If the kernel then attempts to reload that entry, it can trigger an SLB multi-hit error.

The following timeline shows how stale SLB entries are created and can cause a multi-hit error when a process moves between CPUs without a MMU context switch.

CPU 0 CPU 1 ----- ----- Process P exec swapper/1 loadelfbinary beginnewexc activatemm switchmmirqsoff switchmmucontext switchslb /* * This invalidates all * the entries in the HW * and setup the new HW * SLB entries as per the * preload cache. */ contextswitch schedmigratetask migrates process P to cpu-1

Process swapper/0 context switch (to process P) (uses mmstruct of Process P) switchmmirqsoff() switchslb loadslb++ /* * loadslb becomes 0 here * and we evict an entry from * the preload cache with * preloadage(). We still * keep HW SLB and preload * cache in sync, that is * because all HW SLB entries * anyways gets evicted in * switchslb during SLBIA. * We then only add those * entries back in HW SLB, * which are currently * present in preloadcache * (after eviction). */ loadelfbinary continues... setupnewexec() slbsetupnew_exec()

                                    sched_switch event
                                    sched_migrate_task migrates
                                    process P to cpu-0

contextswitch from swapper/0 to Process P switchmmirqsoff() /* * Since both prev and next mm struct are same we don't call * switchmmucontext(). This will cause the HW SLB and SW preload * cache to go out of sync in preloadnewslbcontext. Because there * was an SLB entry which was evicted from both HW and preload cache * on cpu-1. Now later in preloadnewslbcontext(), when we will try * to add the same preload entry again, we will add this to the SW * preload cache and then will add it to the HW SLB. Since on cpu-0 * this entry was never invalidated, hence adding this entry to the HW * SLB will cause a SLB multi-hit error. */ loadelfbinary cont ---truncated---