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

hung_task: fix warnings caused by unaligned lock pointers

The blocker tracking mechanism assumes that lock pointers are at least
4-byte aligned to use their lower bits for type encoding.

However, as reported by Eero Tamminen, some architectures like m68k
only guarantee 2-byte alignment of 32-bit values. This breaks the
assumption and causes two related WARN_ON_ONCE checks to trigger.

To fix this, the runtime checks are adjusted to silently ignore any lock
that is not 4-byte aligned, effectively disabling the feature in such
cases and avoiding the related warnings.

Thanks to Geert Uytterhoeven for bisecting!
Advisories
Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8029-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8030-1 Linux kernel (GCP) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8029-2 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8048-1 Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8029-3 Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

threat_severity

Low


Tue, 16 Dec 2025 14:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: hung_task: fix warnings caused by unaligned lock pointers The blocker tracking mechanism assumes that lock pointers are at least 4-byte aligned to use their lower bits for type encoding. However, as reported by Eero Tamminen, some architectures like m68k only guarantee 2-byte alignment of 32-bit values. This breaks the assumption and causes two related WARN_ON_ONCE checks to trigger. To fix this, the runtime checks are adjusted to silently ignore any lock that is not 4-byte aligned, effectively disabling the feature in such cases and avoiding the related warnings. Thanks to Geert Uytterhoeven for bisecting!
Title hung_task: fix warnings caused by unaligned lock pointers
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-12-16T14:32:17.173Z

Reserved: 2025-12-16T13:41:40.266Z

Link: CVE-2025-68250

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2025-12-16T15:15:54.307

Modified: 2025-12-18T15:08:06.237

Link: CVE-2025-68250

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Low

Publid Date: 2025-12-16T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2025-68250 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses

No weakness.