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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2024-44943 json

mm: gup: stop abusing try_grab_folio

published 2024-08-28 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-41243

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 7%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mm: gup: stop abusing try_grab_folio

A kernel warning was reported when pinning folio in CMA memory when launching SEV virtual machine. The splat looks like:

[ 464.325306] WARNING: CPU: 13 PID: 6734 at mm/gup.c:1313 __get_user_pages+0x423/0x520 [ 464.325464] CPU: 13 PID: 6734 Comm: qemu-kvm Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.6.33+ #6 [ 464.325477] RIP: 0010:__get_user_pages+0x423/0x520 [ 464.325515] Call Trace: [ 464.325520] <TASK> [ 464.325523] ? __get_user_pages+0x423/0x520 [ 464.325528] ? __warn+0x81/0x130 [ 464.325536] ? __get_user_pages+0x423/0x520 [ 464.325541] ? report_bug+0x171/0x1a0 [ 464.325549] ? handle_bug+0x3c/0x70 [ 464.325554] ? exc_invalid_op+0x17/0x70 [ 464.325558] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 [ 464.325567] ? __get_user_pages+0x423/0x520 [ 464.325575] __gup_longterm_locked+0x212/0x7a0 [ 464.325583] internal_get_user_pages_fast+0xfb/0x190 [ 464.325590] pin_user_pages_fast+0x47/0x60 [ 464.325598] sev_pin_memory+0xca/0x170 [kvm_amd] [ 464.325616] sev_mem_enc_register_region+0x81/0x130 [kvm_amd]

Per the analysis done by yangge, when starting the SEV virtual machine, it will call pin_user_pages_fast(..., FOLL_LONGTERM, ...) to pin the memory. But the page is in CMA area, so fast GUP will fail then fallback to the slow path due to the longterm pinnalbe check in try_grab_folio().

The slow path will try to pin the pages then migrate them out of CMA area. But the slow path also uses try_grab_folio() to pin the page, it will also fail due to the same check then the above warning is triggered.

In addition, the try_grab_folio() is supposed to be used in fast path and it elevates folio refcount by using add ref unless zero. We are guaranteed to have at least one stable reference in slow path, so the simple atomic add could be used. The performance difference should be trivial, but the misuse may be confusing and misleading.

Redefined try_grab_folio() to try_grab_folio_fast(), and try_grab_page() to try_grab_folio(), and use them in the proper paths. This solves both the abuse and the kernel warning.

The proper naming makes their usecase more clear and should prevent from abusing in the future.

peterx said:

: The user will see the pin fails, for gpu-slow it further triggers the WARN : right below that failure (as in the original report): : : folio = try_grab_folio(page, page_increm - 1, : foll_flags); : if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!folio)) { <------------------------ here : /* : * Release the 1st page ref if the : * folio is problematic, fail hard. : */ : gup_put_folio(page_folio(page), 1, : foll_flags); : ret = -EFAULT; : goto out; : }

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/1719478388-31917-1-git-send-email-yangge1116@126.com/

[shy828301@gmail.com: fix implicit declaration of function try_grab_folio_fast]

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.6.47, 6.10
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.10.3-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-44943

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-50.51
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1020.22
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1019.21
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1015.19
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1017.17
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1020.23
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1002.4
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1016.18

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-44943

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-44943 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: mm: gup: stop abusing try_grab_folio

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.18% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 7% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.