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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2026-53373 json

mm/vma: do not try to unmap a VMA if mmap_prepare() invoked from mmap()

published 2026-07-19 3 mo ago modified 2026-08-05 3 mo ago also EUVD-2026-45446

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: do not try to unmap a VMA if mmap_prepare() invoked from mmap()

The mmap_prepare hook functionality includes the ability to invoke mmap_prepare() from the mmap() hook of existing 'stacked' drivers, that is ones which are capable of calling the mmap hooks of other drivers/file systems (e.g. overlayfs, shm).

As part of the mmap_prepare action functionality, we deal with errors by unmapping the VMA should one arise. This works in the usual mmap_prepare case, as we invoke this action at the last moment, when the VMA is established in the maple tree.

However, the mmap() hook passes a not-fully-established VMA pointer to the caller (which is the motivation behind the mmap_prepare() work), which is detached.

So attempting to unmap a VMA in this state will be problematic, with the most obvious symptom being a warning in vma_mark_detached(), because the VMA is already detached.

It's also unncessary - the mmap() handler will clean up the VMA on error.

So to fix this issue, this patch propagates whether or not an mmap action is being completed via the compatibility layer or directly.

If the former, then we do not attempt VMA cleanup, if the latter, then we do.

This patch also updates the userland VMA tests to reflect the change.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 7.0.9, 7.1
  • linux Debian 14 7.0.9-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53373

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1009.9
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1008.8
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1003.4
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.10
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1010.10
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.15
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-28.28.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-53373

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-2026-53373 updated cvss 5.5

kernel: mm/vma: do not try to unmap a VMA if mmap_prepare() invoked from mmap()

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • 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

0.17% 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

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.