userfaultfd: fix checks for huge PMDs
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 fixed, 2 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: userfaultfd: fix checks for huge PMDs Patch series "userfaultfd: fix races around pmd_trans_huge() check", v2. The pmd_trans_huge() code in mfill_atomic() is wrong in three different ways depending on kernel version: 1. The pmd_trans_huge() check is racy and can lead to a BUG_ON() (if you hit the right two race windows) - I've tested this in a kernel build with some extra mdelay() calls. See the commit message for a description of the race scenario. On older kernels (before 6.5), I think the same bug can even theoretically lead to accessing transhuge page contents as a page table if you hit the right 5 narrow race windows (I haven't tested this case). 2. As pointed out by Qi Zheng, pmd_trans_huge() is not sufficient for detecting PMDs that don't point to page tables. On older kernels (before 6.5), you'd just have to win a single fairly wide race to hit this. I've tested this on 6.1 stable by racing migration (with a mdelay() patched into try_to_migrate()) against UFFDIO_ZEROPAGE - on my x86 VM, that causes a kernel oops in ptlock_ptr(). 3. On newer kernels (>=6.5), for shmem mappings, khugepaged is allowed to yank page tables out from under us (though I haven't tested that), so I think the BUG_ON() checks in mfill_atomic() are just wrong. I decided to write two separate fixes for these (one fix for bugs 1+2, one fix for bug 3), so that the first fix can be backported to kernels affected by bugs 1+2. This patch (of 2): This fixes two issues. I discovered that the following race can occur: mfill_atomic other thread ============ ============ <zap PMD> pmdp_get_lockless() [reads none pmd] <bail if trans_huge> <if none:> <pagefault creates transhuge zeropage> __pte_alloc [no-op] <zap PMD> <bail if pmd_trans_huge(*dst_pmd)> BUG_ON(pmd_none(*dst_pmd)) I have experimentally verified this in a kernel with extra mdelay() calls; the BUG_ON(pmd_none(*dst_pmd)) triggers. On kernels newer than commit 0d940a9b270b ("mm/pgtable: allow pte_offset_map[_lock]() to fail"), this can't lead to anything worse than a BUG_ON(), since the page table access helpers are actually designed to deal with page tables concurrently disappearing; but on older kernels (<=6.4), I think we could probably theoretically race past the two BUG_ON() checks and end up treating a hugepage as a page table. The second issue is that, as Qi Zheng pointed out, there are other types of huge PMDs that pmd_trans_huge() can't catch: devmap PMDs and swap PMDs (in particular, migration PMDs). On <=6.4, this is worse than the first issue: If mfill_atomic() runs on a PMD that contains a migration entry (which just requires winning a single, fairly wide race), it will pass the PMD to pte_offset_map_lock(), which assumes that the PMD points to a page table. Breakage follows: First, the kernel tries to take the PTE lock (which will crash or maybe worse if there is no "struct page" for the address bits in the migration entry PMD - I think at least on X86 there usually is no corresponding "struct page" thanks to the PTE inversion mitigation, amd64 looks different). If that didn't crash, the kernel would next try to write a PTE into what it wrongly thinks is a page table. As part of fixing these issues, get rid of the check for pmd_trans_huge() before __pte_alloc() - that's redundant, we're going to have to check for that after the __pte_alloc() anyway. Backport note: pmdp_get_lockless() is pmd_read_atomic() in older kernels.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 4.3 and later | 6.1.191, 6.6.51, 6.10.10, 6.11 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 4.3 and later Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.51, 6.10.10, 6.11 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 7
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.3 to before 6.6.51; 6.7 to before 6.10.10 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc1 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc2 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc3 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc4 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc5 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.11 rc6 | Vulnerable | Linux |
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 4.3 to before 6.6.51; 6.7 to before 6.10.10 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc5 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.11:rc6:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.11 rc6 Vulnerable ·Linux
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.191, 6.6.51, 6.10.10, 6.11
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2025:6966 Released 2025-05-13 · Red Hat rating Moderatekernel security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6 +12
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) kernel-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-64k-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-64k-core-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6 +28
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, libperf-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-rt-64k-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-rt-64k-core-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6 +21
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-570.12.1.el9_6 +11
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:6966 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:6966 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:6966 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:6966 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:6966 |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-46787
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-r8fr-h8q4-2f98
- 2026-10-29 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-30 Fix available: Linux/[email protected], Linux/Linux@b25c0767a6a18a8399f57c63e50b5cc19037e90a · CNA
- 2026-10-30 1 new reference · CNA
References
Patch 3
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2024-46787 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-46787 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-r8fr-h8q4-2f98 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2024-46787 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences