Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2026-23077 json

mm/vma: fix anon_vma UAF on mremap() faulted, unfaulted merge

published 2026-02-04 9 mo ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2026-5466

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 5%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mm/vma: fix anon_vma UAF on mremap() faulted, unfaulted merge

Patch series "mm/vma: fix anon_vma UAF on mremap() faulted, unfaulted merge", v2.

Commit 879bca0a2c4f ("mm/vma: fix incorrectly disallowed anonymous VMA merges") introduced the ability to merge previously unavailable VMA merge scenarios.

However, it is handling merges incorrectly when it comes to mremap() of a faulted VMA adjacent to an unfaulted VMA. The issues arise in three cases:

1. Previous VMA unfaulted:

copied -----| v |-----------|.............| | unfaulted |(faulted VMA)| |-----------|.............| prev

2. Next VMA unfaulted:

copied -----| v |.............|-----------| |(faulted VMA)| unfaulted | |.............|-----------| next

3. Both adjacent VMAs unfaulted:

copied -----| v |-----------|.............|-----------| | unfaulted |(faulted VMA)| unfaulted | |-----------|.............|-----------| prev next

This series fixes each of these cases, and introduces self tests to assert that the issues are corrected.

I also test a further case which was already handled, to assert that my changes continues to correctly handle it:

4. prev unfaulted, next faulted:

copied -----| v |-----------|.............|-----------| | unfaulted |(faulted VMA)| faulted | |-----------|.............|-----------| prev next

This bug was discovered via a syzbot report, linked to in the first patch in the series, I confirmed that this series fixes the bug.

I also discovered that we are failing to check that the faulted VMA was not forked when merging a copied VMA in cases 1-3 above, an issue this series also addresses.

I also added self tests to assert that this is resolved (and confirmed that the tests failed prior to this).

I also cleaned up vma_expand() as part of this work, renamed vma_had_uncowed_parents() to vma_is_fork_child() as the previous name was unduly confusing, and simplified the comments around this function.

This patch (of 4):

Commit 879bca0a2c4f ("mm/vma: fix incorrectly disallowed anonymous VMA merges") introduced the ability to merge previously unavailable VMA merge scenarios.

The key piece of logic introduced was the ability to merge a faulted VMA immediately next to an unfaulted VMA, which relies upon dup_anon_vma() to correctly handle anon_vma state.

In the case of the merge of an existing VMA (that is changing properties of a VMA and then merging if those properties are shared by adjacent VMAs), dup_anon_vma() is invoked correctly.

However in the case of the merge of a new VMA, a corner case peculiar to mremap() was missed.

The issue is that vma_expand() only performs dup_anon_vma() if the target (the VMA that will ultimately become the merged VMA): is not the next VMA, i.e. the one that appears after the range in which the new VMA is to be established.

A key insight here is that in all other cases other than mremap(), a new VMA merge either expands an existing VMA, meaning that the target VMA will be that VMA, or would have anon_vma be NULL.

Specifically:

* __mmap_region() - no anon_vma in place, initial mapping. * do_brk_flags() - expanding an existing VMA. * vma_merge_extend() - expanding an existing VMA. * relocate_vma_down() - no anon_vma in place, initial mapping.

In addition, we are in the unique situation of needing to duplicate anon_vma state from a VMA that is neither the previous or next VMA being merged with.

dup_anon_vma() deals exclusively with the target=unfaulted, src=faulted case. This leaves four possibilities, in each case where the copied VMA is faulted:

1. Previous VMA unfaulted:

copied -----|

---truncated---

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.18.8, 6.19
  • linux Debian 14 6.18.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23077

  • linux-gcp-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1021.24~24.04.1
  • linux-hwe-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-41.41~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1030.30
  • linux-azure-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1021.21~24.04.1
  • linux-nvidia-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1031.31
  • linux-oracle-6.17 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1019.19~24.04.3
  • linux-realtime-6.17 Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS 6.17.0-1018.20~24.04.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23077

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-2026-23077 updated cvss 7.8

kernel: Linux kernel: Privilege escalation via Use-After-Free in mm/vma mremap()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 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 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    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

Exploit prediction

0.16% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 5% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
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.