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no cvss —

CVE-2026-97533 json

x86/mm/pat: Acquire init_mm read lock on attribute changes to avoid UAF

published 2026-09-25 44 d ago modified 2026-10-19 20 d ago also EUVD-2026-86841

cvss
—
not scored
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 12%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

x86/mm/pat: Acquire init_mm read lock on attribute changes to avoid UAF

A previous commit protected against races between ptdump and CPA collapse, however one still exists between attribute changes and collapse as reported by Denis V. Lunev (linked).

When an attribute change arises, a lockless page table walker obtains a PTE entry, which is later written to via set_pte_atomic():

... -> change_page_attr_set_clr() -> __change_page_attr_set_clr() -> __change_page_attr() -> _lookup_address_cpa() -> lookup_address_in_pgd_attr() -> [ lockless page table walker ] -> set_pte_atomic()

There is nothing preventing a concurrent CPA collapse which can free the PTE that was retrieved here, resulting in a use-after-free.

With the mmap write lock taken on init_mm over CPA collapse, resolve this race by acquiring an mmap read lock on init_mm over __change_page_attr_set_clr().

This locks across the whole operation over which the walk and the PTE entry write occurs, solving the race.

It is safe to do this here, as no spinlocks are held upon entry to __change_page_attr_set_clr().

However, the lock must not be held over an allocation, as allocation can trigger reclaim and shrinkers may call into CPA recursively, making deadlocks possible (init_mm -> ... -> fs_reclaim -> init_mm).

A page table is allocated when a huge page needs to be split:

-> change_page_attr_set_clr() -> __change_page_attr_set_clr() -> __change_page_attr() -> split_large_page() [ pagetable_alloc() ] -> __split_large_page()

Avoid deadlocks by dropping the mmap lock across pagetable_alloc() in split_large_page() and track whether this is needed by adding a new 'init_mm_read_locked' flag to struct cpa_data.

This is safe as __split_large_page() (called with locks re-established) revalidates that the page table entry is the same as it was prior to the locks being dropped and __change_page_attr() repeats the entire page table walk whenever a split occurs, so concurrent split and collapse are accounted for.

Concurrent ptdump is also safe as the lock is only dropped over page table allocation during which time the page table has not yet been modified.

The CPA_COLLAPSE flag is only set by set_memory_rox(), which exclusively operates upon vmalloc ranges, and on x86 only within the module mapping space.

This is important, because some callers directly invoke __change_page_attr_set_clr(), bypassing this lock. However, none of these operate within the module mapping space.

* cpa_process_alias() - a recursive helper called by __change_page_attr_set_clr(). * __set_memory_enc_pgtable() - operates on the direct mapping and (via __vmbus_establish_gpadl()) the vmalloc mapping space. * __set_pages_[n]p() - called by set_direct_map_[invalid, default, valid]_noflush(), __kernel_map_pages() - operates on the direct map. * kernel_[un]map_pages_in_pgd() - operates on EFI ranges.

This work is based upon Denis V. Lunev's excellent analysis of the bug with gratitude.

[ dhansen: move to imperative voice in changelog ]

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.18.53, 7.2.7, 7.3
  • linux Debian 14 7.2.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-97533

  • linux Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.17
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1016.18
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42.1
  • linux-oracle Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1015.16
  • linux-hwe-7.0 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 7.0.0-42.42~24.04.1
  • linux-oem-7.0 Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 7.0.0-1017.17

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-97533

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

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.2 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-64kb SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-source SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-default SLES 16.0, SLE High Availability Extension 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2 +1 more 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-default-base SLES 16.0, Linux Micro 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1.160000.2.29
  • kernel-syms SLES 16.0, Linux Micro Extras 6.2, SLES for SAP applications 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-obs-qa SLES for SAP applications 16.0, SLES 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:24422-1SUSE-SU-2026:24446-1SUSE-SU-2026:24437-1SUSE-SU-2026:24386-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-azure openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 16.0 6.12.0-160000.40.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:22167-1openSUSE-SU-2026:12074-1

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-2026-97533 updated cvss 7.0

kernel: x86/mm/pat: Acquire init_mm read lock on attribute changes to avoid UAF

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • 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 OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8, openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    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

0.22% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 12% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

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