CVE-2026-74672
mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF Patch series "mm: fix UAF caused by race between ptdump and vmap pgtable freeing", v6. Kernel page table walkers fall into two broad categories - those ranges where no exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range_lockless() and those where exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range() or walk_page_range_debug(). The former category is used only by arm64 arch code operating on ranges it both wholly owns and does not concurrently write. The latter category consists of kernel page table walkers operating on ranges that are wholly owned (but which need exclusion against concurrent writers). The lock used for exclusion is the mmap lock, and for kernel ranges this is the mmap lock on init_mm. ptdump is a special case being both the only user of walk_page_range_debug(), and the only case in which it walks ranges it does not own. This presents a problem, as page tables may be freed under ptdump. And indeed there is a use-after-free bug in the kernel as a result, which this series addresses. vmap promotes page tables to huge leaf entries where possible, freeing the lower page table when it does. It does this with no meaningful locks held against concurrent ptdump walks. As a result, use-after-free can currently occur. This series addresses the issue by having the vmap huge promotion logic acquire the mmap read lock while both setting the huge page table entry and freeing the prior leaf page table. The ptdump code already acquires the mmap write lock, so by doing so we ensure that the ptdump walker only ever observes either the huge page table entry or the existing page table entry, and nothing is freed underneath it. A mitigation for this issue was already applied for arm64 in commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), which this series has to deal with carefully. This mitigation resolves the issue by acquiring the mmap read lock on init_mm on vmap page table free if a ptdump is in progress. However the fix in this series would cause a deadlock if we were to simply apply it for arm64 without also reverting the change. This is because vmap may acquire the read lock before ptdump attempts to acquire the write lock, which then gets queued, and rwsem starvation rules mean that the (unacknowledged) nested mmap read lock in the arm64 code would also block, meaning the original read lock is never released and thus deadlock. This series works around this by #ifndef CONFIG_ARM64'ing the mmap read lock in vmap logic, then partially reverting commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), keeping the enablement of huge vmap support, and removing the ifdeffery with the partial revert patch. There are related issues that are also addressed in this series: * x86 page attribute logic, specifically Change Page Attributes (CPA), implements a feature whereby huge ranges can be collapsed into huge leaf entries. This can similarly cause a UAF when done in parallel with a ptdump walk, so similarly acquire the init_mm mmap lock to avoid this. * The CPA logic allows concurrent page table manipulation and CPA collapse, meaning the former risks accessing a page table the latter frees. Fix this by acquiring mmap write lock on init_mm across the whole CPA collapse operation and read lock on the page table manipulation. * x86 and arm64 permit walks of non-kernel mm's (both allowing efi mm walks, and in x86's case arbitrary mm's), so we ensure kernel mappings remain stable by locking the init_mm as well as the mm being walked. The ordering of patches is established for both strict dependencies (the arm64 partial revert in particular has to be done after the vmap changes) and logical ones (the non-kernel mm fix only makes sense once the vmap/CPA fixes are in place). This patch (of 3): Currently there is a nasty ra ---truncated---
INFO
Published Date :
Aug. 22, 2026, 4:16 p.m.
Last Modified :
Aug. 22, 2026, 4:16 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-74672
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
No affected product recoded yet
Solution
- Acquire init_mm lock during huge vmap operations.
- Acquire mmap read lock for vmap page table freeing.
- Acquire init_mm mmap write lock for CPA collapse.
- Lock init_mm and walking mm for stability.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-74672.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-74672 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-74672
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-74672 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-74672 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
New CVE Received by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Aug. 22, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Affected [{'repo': 'https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git', 'vendor': 'Linux', 'product': 'Linux', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': 'b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e', 'lessThan': 'c5bf8cd148cfea948cfa3db71da427294b20db0f', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': 'b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e', 'lessThan': '3cc26c8907db0f5d1ff8043b5851ee572e9b3c98', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': 'b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e', 'lessThan': '26444eb71465c9934d9d418ef69c43f61185329b', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '31895cfd79564111cdd5a9f48c5d491ae26a238e', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '9c7f7bdb1932f8c1e5f80d32c717184701afe701', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': 'acdb4981644c8e31ccee294bdefff475c0cf587b', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '0454e2fad9306961540ee7e84da47a8e345b7d22', 'versionType': 'git'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '4.4.125', 'lessThan': '4.5', 'versionType': 'semver'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '4.9.91', 'lessThan': '4.10', 'versionType': 'semver'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '4.14.31', 'lessThan': '4.15', 'versionType': 'semver'}, {'status': 'affected', 'version': '4.15.14', 'lessThan': '4.16', 'versionType': 'semver'}], 'programFiles': ['include/linux/mmap_lock.h', 'mm/pagewalk.c', 'mm/vmalloc.c'], 'defaultStatus': 'unaffected'}, {'repo': 'https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git', 'vendor': 'Linux', 'product': 'Linux', 'versions': [{'status': 'affected', 'version': '4.16'}, {'status': 'unaffected', 'version': '0', 'lessThan': '4.16', 'versionType': 'semver'}, {'status': 'unaffected', 'version': '6.18.45', 'versionType': 'semver', 'lessThanOrEqual': '6.18.*'}, {'status': 'unaffected', 'version': '7.1.9', 'versionType': 'semver', 'lessThanOrEqual': '7.1.*'}, {'status': 'unaffected', 'version': '7.2', 'versionType': 'original_commit_for_fix', 'lessThanOrEqual': '*'}], 'programFiles': ['include/linux/mmap_lock.h', 'mm/pagewalk.c', 'mm/vmalloc.c'], 'defaultStatus': 'affected'}] Added Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF Patch series "mm: fix UAF caused by race between ptdump and vmap pgtable freeing", v6. Kernel page table walkers fall into two broad categories - those ranges where no exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range_lockless() and those where exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range() or walk_page_range_debug(). The former category is used only by arm64 arch code operating on ranges it both wholly owns and does not concurrently write. The latter category consists of kernel page table walkers operating on ranges that are wholly owned (but which need exclusion against concurrent writers). The lock used for exclusion is the mmap lock, and for kernel ranges this is the mmap lock on init_mm. ptdump is a special case being both the only user of walk_page_range_debug(), and the only case in which it walks ranges it does not own. This presents a problem, as page tables may be freed under ptdump. And indeed there is a use-after-free bug in the kernel as a result, which this series addresses. vmap promotes page tables to huge leaf entries where possible, freeing the lower page table when it does. It does this with no meaningful locks held against concurrent ptdump walks. As a result, use-after-free can currently occur. This series addresses the issue by having the vmap huge promotion logic acquire the mmap read lock while both setting the huge page table entry and freeing the prior leaf page table. The ptdump code already acquires the mmap write lock, so by doing so we ensure that the ptdump walker only ever observes either the huge page table entry or the existing page table entry, and nothing is freed underneath it. A mitigation for this issue was already applied for arm64 in commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), which this series has to deal with carefully. This mitigation resolves the issue by acquiring the mmap read lock on init_mm on vmap page table free if a ptdump is in progress. However the fix in this series would cause a deadlock if we were to simply apply it for arm64 without also reverting the change. This is because vmap may acquire the read lock before ptdump attempts to acquire the write lock, which then gets queued, and rwsem starvation rules mean that the (unacknowledged) nested mmap read lock in the arm64 code would also block, meaning the original read lock is never released and thus deadlock. This series works around this by #ifndef CONFIG_ARM64'ing the mmap read lock in vmap logic, then partially reverting commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), keeping the enablement of huge vmap support, and removing the ifdeffery with the partial revert patch. There are related issues that are also addressed in this series: * x86 page attribute logic, specifically Change Page Attributes (CPA), implements a feature whereby huge ranges can be collapsed into huge leaf entries. This can similarly cause a UAF when done in parallel with a ptdump walk, so similarly acquire the init_mm mmap lock to avoid this. * The CPA logic allows concurrent page table manipulation and CPA collapse, meaning the former risks accessing a page table the latter frees. Fix this by acquiring mmap write lock on init_mm across the whole CPA collapse operation and read lock on the page table manipulation. * x86 and arm64 permit walks of non-kernel mm's (both allowing efi mm walks, and in x86's case arbitrary mm's), so we ensure kernel mappings remain stable by locking the init_mm as well as the mm being walked. The ordering of patches is established for both strict dependencies (the arm64 partial revert in particular has to be done after the vmap changes) and logical ones (the non-kernel mm fix only makes sense once the vmap/CPA fixes are in place). This patch (of 3): Currently there is a nasty ra ---truncated--- Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/26444eb71465c9934d9d418ef69c43f61185329b Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3cc26c8907db0f5d1ff8043b5851ee572e9b3c98 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c5bf8cd148cfea948cfa3db71da427294b20db0f