CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-93066

Unknown
Published: Translated: NVD NIST

Summary

A use-after-free vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's PAT (Page Attribute Table) mechanism for x86. The issue occurs during concurrent module loading/unloading on multiple CPUs, when the large-page collapse operation is not protected by the proper lock, leading to a write to freed memory and system crash.

Risk Assessment

The vulnerability can lead to memory corruption, system crash (kernel panic), or potentially privilege escalation in environments with KASAN and concurrent module loading. An attacker with local access could exploit this flaw to destabilize the system.

Recommendation

Apply the official patch from the Linux kernel distributor immediately, which adds the cpa_lock around the large-page collapse operation. Also, restrict concurrent module loading on production systems until the update is applied.

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86/mm/pat: Take cpa_lock around large-page collapse Loading and unloading modules concurrently on several CPUs on a KASAN build, with a short delay injected at the CPA page-table lookup to widen the window, faults within minutes: BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __change_page_attr+0x7cc/0x7e0 Write of size 8 at addr ffff888181139718 by task modprobe ... The buggy address belongs to the physical page: pfn:0x181139 ... page_type: f2(table) cpa_collapse_large_pages() rebuilds a leaf PMD from its 4K PTEs and frees the old PTE-table pages, while __change_page_attr() fetches a PTE pointer from a lockless lookup_address_in_pgd_attr() and writes it with set_pte_atomic() only later. When module text is served from a shared large ROX mapping the two run on the same PMD: CPU A (module load) CPU B (module finalize) ------------------- ----------------------- execmem_make_temp_rw set_memory_nx __change_page_attr split 2M -> 4K table P kpte = &P[i] (lockless) execmem_restore_rox set_memory_rox (CPA_COLLAPSE) cpa_collapse_large_pages rebuild leaf PMD flush_tlb_all pagetable_free(P) set_pte_atomic(kpte, ...) -> writes into freed P P is a page-table page (page_type: table), reused at once, so the write corrupts whatever got the page next: a bad-pte or bad-page splat, or a fatal fault once P has been turned into read-only text. The flush_tlb_all() before the free does not close this: its IPI only serializes against page-table walkers that run with interrupts off (e.g. GUP-fast); the walk in __change_page_attr() runs with interrupts on, so nothing stops it from holding a stale pointer into P. Serialize the collapse - the PMD rebuild, TLB flush and PTE-table free - under cpa_lock, the same lock __change_page_attr() now takes unconditionally since commit ("x86/mm/pat: stop gating cpa_lock on debug_pagealloc_enabled()"), so a concurrent walker can no longer hold a pointer into a table the collapse is about to free.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS