slub: fix data loss and overflow in krealloc()
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-190 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: slub: fix data loss and overflow in krealloc() Commit 2cd8231796b5 ("mm/slub: allow to set node and align in k[v]realloc") introduced the ability to force a reallocation if the original object does not satisfy new alignment or NUMA node, even when the object is being shrunk. This introduced two bugs in the reallocation fallback path: 1. Data loss during NUMA migration: The jump to 'alloc_new' happens before 'ks' and 'orig_size' are initialized. As a result, the memcpy() in the 'alloc_new' block would copy 0 bytes into the new allocation. 2. Buffer overflow during shrinking: When shrinking an object while forcing a new alignment, 'new_size' is smaller than the old size. However, the memcpy() used the old size ('orig_size ?: ks'), leading to an out-of-bounds write. The same overflow bug exists in the kvrealloc() fallback path, where the old bucket size ksize(p) is copied into the new buffer without being bounded by the new size. A simple reproducer: // e.g. add to lkdtm as KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW while (1) { void *p = kmalloc(128, GFP_KERNEL); p = krealloc_node_align(p, 64, 256, GFP_KERNEL, NUMA_NO_NODE); kfree(p); } demonstrates the issue: ================================================================== BUG: KFENCE: out-of-bounds write in memcpy_orig+0x68/0x130 Out-of-bounds write at 0xffff8883ad757038 (120B right of kfence-#47): memcpy_orig+0x68/0x130 krealloc_node_align_noprof+0x1c8/0x340 lkdtm_KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW+0x8c/0xc0 [lkdtm] lkdtm_do_action+0x3a/0x60 [lkdtm] ... kfence-#47: 0xffff8883ad756fc0-0xffff8883ad756fff, size=64, cache=kmalloc-64 allocated by task 316 on cpu 7 at 97.680481s (0.021813s ago): krealloc_node_align_noprof+0x19c/0x340 lkdtm_KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW+0x8c/0xc0 [lkdtm] lkdtm_do_action+0x3a/0x60 [lkdtm] ... ================================================================== Fix it by moving the old size calculation to the top of __do_krealloc() and bounding all copy lengths by the new allocation size.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.18.27, 7.0.4, 7.1
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- 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-2026-45990
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-q4r9-vxp8-26x5
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-2026-45990 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-45990 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-q4r9-vxp8-26x5 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-45990 · 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