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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-53155 json

mm/huge_memory: use correct flags for device private PMD entry

published 2026-06-25 4 mo ago modified 2026-07-07 4 mo ago also EUVD-2026-39246

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

mm/huge_memory: use correct flags for device private PMD entry

Commit 65edfda6f3f2 ("mm/rmap: extend rmap and migration support device-private entries") updated set_pmd_migration_entry() to use pmdp_huge_get_and_clear() in the softleaf case, but made no further adjustments to the function itself.

Therefore this function continues to incorrectly use pmd_write(), pmd_soft_dirty() and pmd_uffd_wp() to determine whether the installed migration entry should be marked writable, softdirty or uffd-wp respectively.

Whilst all are incorrect, the most problematic of these is pmd_write(), as this can lead to corrupted rmap state.

On x86-64 _PAGE_SWP_SOFT_DIRTY is aliased to _PAGE_RW. So calling pmd_write() on a softleaf will return the softdirty state encoded in the entry, assuming CONFIG_MEM_SOFT_DIRTY was enabled.

This was observed when running the hmm.hmm_device_private.anon_write_child selftest:

1. The test faults in a range then migrates it such that a device-private THP range is established.

2. The parent then migrates it to a device-private writable PMD entry whose folio is entirely AnonExclusive with entire_mapcount=1, softdirty set (accidentally correct write state).

3. The parent forks and the PMD entries are set to device-private read only entries, entire_mapcount=2, softdirty still set.

4. [BUG] The child writes to the range then migrates to RAM - intending to install non-writable migration entries - but replacing parent and child PMD mappings with WRITABLE entries due to misinterpreting the softdirty bit.

5. In remove_migration_pmd(), if !softleaf_is_migration_read(entry) we set the RMAP_EXCLUSIVE flag when calling folio_add_anon_rmap_pmd() for both parent and child, which are therefore AnonExclusive.

6. [SPLAT] Child sets migrated folio entire_mapcount=1, parent sets entire_mapcount=2 and we end up with an AnonExclusive folio with entire_mapcount=2! Assert fires in __folio_add_anon_rmap():

VM_WARN_ON_FOLIO(folio_test_large(folio) && folio_entire_mapcount(folio) > 1 && PageAnonExclusive(cur_page), folio)

This patch fixes the issue by correctly referencing the softleaf entry fields for writable, softdirty and uffd-wp in set_pmd_migration_entry().

It also only updates A/D flags if the entry is present as these are otherwise not meaningful for a softleaf entry.

This patch also flips the if (!present) { ... } else { ... } logic in set_pmd_migration_entry() so it is easier to understand, and adds some comments to make things clearer.

I was able to bisect this to commit 775465fd26a3 ("lib/test_hmm: add zone device private THP test infrastructure") which first exposes this bug as it was the commit that permitted test_hmm to generate the test.

However commit 65edfda6f3f2 ("mm/rmap: extend rmap and migration support device-private entries") is the commit that actually enabled this behaviour.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 7.0.13, 7.1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.13-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53155

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-31.31
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1012.12
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1011.11
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1006.7
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1013.13
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1014.14
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1019.19
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-31.31.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53155

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-2026-53155 updated

kernel: mm/huge_memory: use correct flags for device private PMD entry

  • 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

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% 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

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