riscv: mm: Do not call pmd dtor on vmemmap page table teardown
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: mm: Do not call pmd dtor on vmemmap page table teardown The vmemmap's, which is used for RV64 with SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP, page tables are populated using pmd (page middle directory) hugetables. However, the pmd allocation is not using the generic mechanism used by the VMA code (e.g. pmd_alloc()), or the RISC-V specific create_pgd_mapping()/alloc_pmd_late(). Instead, the vmemmap page table code allocates a page, and calls vmemmap_set_pmd(). This results in that the pmd ctor is *not* called, nor would it make sense to do so. Now, when tearing down a vmemmap page table pmd, the cleanup code would unconditionally, and incorrectly call the pmd dtor, which results in a crash (best case). This issue was found when running the HMM selftests: | tools/testing/selftests/mm# ./test_hmm.sh smoke | ... # when unloading the test_hmm.ko module | page: refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x10915b | flags: 0x1000000000000000(node=0|zone=1) | raw: 1000000000000000 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 0000000000000000 | raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 | page dumped because: VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(ptdesc->pmd_huge_pte) | ------------[ cut here ]------------ | kernel BUG at include/linux/mm.h:3080! | Kernel BUG [#1] | Modules linked in: test_hmm(-) sch_fq_codel fuse drm drm_panel_orientation_quirks backlight dm_mod | CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 514 Comm: modprobe Tainted: G W 6.12.0-00982-gf2a4f1682d07 #2 | Tainted: [W]=WARN | Hardware name: riscv-virtio qemu/qemu, BIOS 2024.10 10/01/2024 | epc : remove_pgd_mapping+0xbec/0x1070 | ra : remove_pgd_mapping+0xbec/0x1070 | epc : ffffffff80010a68 ra : ffffffff80010a68 sp : ff20000000a73940 | gp : ffffffff827b2d88 tp : ff6000008785da40 t0 : ffffffff80fbce04 | t1 : 0720072007200720 t2 : 706d756420656761 s0 : ff20000000a73a50 | s1 : ff6000008915cff8 a0 : 0000000000000039 a1 : 0000000000000008 | a2 : ff600003fff0de20 a3 : 0000000000000000 a4 : 0000000000000000 | a5 : 0000000000000000 a6 : c0000000ffffefff a7 : ffffffff824469b8 | s2 : ff1c0000022456c0 s3 : ff1ffffffdbfffff s4 : ff6000008915c000 | s5 : ff6000008915c000 s6 : ff6000008915c000 s7 : ff1ffffffdc00000 | s8 : 0000000000000001 s9 : ff1ffffffdc00000 s10: ffffffff819a31f0 | s11: ffffffffffffffff t3 : ffffffff8000c950 t4 : ff60000080244f00 | t5 : ff60000080244000 t6 : ff20000000a73708 | status: 0000000200000120 badaddr: ffffffff80010a68 cause: 0000000000000003 | [<ffffffff80010a68>] remove_pgd_mapping+0xbec/0x1070 | [<ffffffff80fd238e>] vmemmap_free+0x14/0x1e | [<ffffffff8032e698>] section_deactivate+0x220/0x452 | [<ffffffff8032ef7e>] sparse_remove_section+0x4a/0x58 | [<ffffffff802f8700>] __remove_pages+0x7e/0xba | [<ffffffff803760d8>] memunmap_pages+0x2bc/0x3fe | [<ffffffff02a3ca28>] dmirror_device_remove_chunks+0x2ea/0x518 [test_hmm] | [<ffffffff02a3e026>] hmm_dmirror_exit+0x3e/0x1018 [test_hmm] | [<ffffffff80102c14>] __riscv_sys_delete_module+0x15a/0x2a6 | [<ffffffff80fd020c>] do_trap_ecall_u+0x1f2/0x266 | [<ffffffff80fde0a2>] _new_vmalloc_restore_context_a0+0xc6/0xd2 | Code: bf51 7597 0184 8593 76a5 854a 4097 0029 80e7 2c00 (9002) 7597 | ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- | Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt Add a check to avoid calling the pmd dtor, if the calling context is vmemmap_free().
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 | 6.11 and later | 6.12.6, 6.13 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 6.11 and later Fixed in 6.12.6, 6.13 Patch available CNA
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.12.6, 6.13
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 4 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-56673
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-58c3-gqj2-fvq8
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
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- 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-2024-56673 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-56673 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-58c3-gqj2-fvq8 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2024-56673 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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