CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-98226

Low risk· EPSS 6%
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.17%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

In the Linux kernel, a collision exists between the SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT flag and the real swap usage counter. The flag is defined as bit 30, which on systems with 4 KiB pages collides with the usage count once it reaches 4 TiB. This can cause underreporting of swap usage, premature swapoff leading to lost pages, and corruption of the counter and plist.

Risk Assessment

On systems with large swap usage (4 TiB or more), data loss may occur due to premature swapoff, and internal kernel structures may be corrupted. Incorrect swap usage reporting can also lead to poor administrative decisions.

Recommendation

Update the Linux kernel to a version containing the fix that changes SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT to be based on atomic_long_t. Monitor swap usage and avoid configurations with extremely large swap until patched.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

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Original NVD description (English source)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm, swap: fix SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT collision with real usage count SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT is embedded in the si->inuse_pages usage counter, and is meant to sit above any value that counter can reach. However, it is defined from BITS_PER_TYPE(atomic_t), so it is bit 30. On a system with 4 KiB pages the flag collides with the usage count once that count reaches 4 TiB. swap_usage_in_pages() masks bit 30 out, so whenever the real count has that bit set, every caller of it reads 4 TiB low: * /proc/swaps understates Used by 4 TiB. * A raw count of exactly 2^30 masks to zero, so try_to_unuse() takes its "if (!swap_usage_in_pages(si)) goto success;" early exit and swapoff tears the device down while pages are still swapped out. Nothing in the rest of swapoff aborts the teardown, so those pages are lost. Independently of swapoff, the collision also corrupts the counter and the plist. On a device in normal use, a free that leaves bit 30 set in the count makes swap_usage_sub() see the flag where there is only count, and call add_to_avail_list(). It clears the bit with fetch_and(~SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT), leaving the stored count 4 TiB below the real one, and calls plist_add() on a device that is already listed, tripping the WARN_ON(!plist_node_empty(node)) in plist_add() and linking the node a second time. Change the definition of SWAP_USAGE_OFFLIST_BIT to be based on atomic_long_t instead. Note that the usage counter field itself is of this same type, so it is still a valid bit.

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