Linux 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 switch_mmu_context() in switch_mm_irqs_off() when the prev and next mm_struct 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 switch_mmu_context(), 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 load_elf_binary begin_new_exc activate_mm switch_mm_irqs_off switch_mmu_context switch_slb /*

• This invalidates all
• the entries in the HW
• and setup the new HW
• SLB entries as per the
• preload cache.

*/ context_switch sched_migrate_task migrates process P to cpu-1

Process swapper/0 context switch (to process P) (uses mm_struct of Process P) switch_mm_irqs_off() switch_slb load_slb++ /*

• load_slb becomes 0 here
• and we evict an entry from
• the preload cache with
• preload_age(). We still
• keep HW SLB and preload
• cache in sync, that is
• because all HW SLB entries
• anyways gets evicted in
• switch_slb during SLBIA.
• We then only add those
• entries back in HW SLB,
• which are currently
• present in preload_cache
• (after eviction).

*/ load_elf_binary continues... setup_new_exec() slb_setup_new_exec()

sched_switch event sched_migrate_task migrates process P to cpu-0

context_switch from swapper/0 to Process P switch_mm_irqs_off() /*

• Since both prev and next mm struct are same we don't call
• switch_mmu_context(). This will cause the HW SLB and SW preload
• cache to go out of sync in preload_new_slb_context. Because there
• was an SLB entry which was evicted from both HW and preload cache
• on cpu-1. Now later in preload_new_slb_context(), 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.

*/ load_elf_binary cont ---truncated---