mm/hugetlb: fix swap entry corruption when clearing uffd-wp at fork()
Key facts
- Attack vector
- —
- Privileges required
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- User interaction
- —
- Attack complexity
- —
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: fix swap entry corruption when clearing uffd-wp at fork() copy_hugetlb_page_range() clears the uffd-wp bit of migration and hwpoison entries with huge_pte_clear_uffd_wp(), which operates on the present-PTE bit position. Swap entries keep the uffd-wp state elsewhere -- the migration branch reads and sets it with pte_swp_uffd_wp() and pte_swp_mkuffd_wp() -- and the present-PTE position falls into the swap payload. On x86-64 it lands in the inverted swap offset, where a naturally-aligned hugetlb PFN always has the affected bit set, so the clear advances the encoded PFN by two pages. No userfaultfd needs to be involved: the clear is guarded only by the child VMA not being uffd-wp registered, so a plain fork() with an in-flight hugetlb migration entry (or a poisoned hugetlb page) corrupts the entry copied into the child. Instrumenting the clear and forking after MADV_HWPOISON on a 2MB anon hugetlb page shows: offset before=120e00 offset after =120e02 The fallout is mostly latent: rmap walks match migration entries by folio range and remove_migration_pte() rebuilds the PTE from the folio, so a within-folio PFN skew heals once migration completes. But any path that re-encodes the corrupted offset -- e.g. hugetlb_change_protection() rewriting a writable migration entry via make_readable_migration_entry(swp_offset(entry)) -- propagates it. Migration entries legitimately carry uffd-wp, so clear it with pte_swp_clear_uffd_wp(), matching copy_nonpresent_pte() and move_huge_pte(). A hwpoison entry, on the other hand, never carries the uffd-wp bit: it is installed fresh by make_hwpoison_entry() (try_to_unmap_one() does not preserve uffd-wp on the hwpoison path) and hugetlb_change_protection() leaves hwpoison entries untouched. There was nothing to clear there, only the corruption, so drop the clear entirely.
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
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.183, 6.6.151, 6.12.103, 6.18.44, 7.1.8, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-80893
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-84rp-g9wq-249m
- 2026-10-25 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-25 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 CISA SSVC decision points changed
References
Other 6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f1b1311c0352873137768bac5a126e491271a747
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/69cb5825d9988c7944bc9f1dc08cb233655405a7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8b0de7005b148738d79d6c45594d566489948a68
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2b9a07002c2f296aa6a9c591213933d3492e3089
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2fa11c60c9c06bafc19cf4d9efdaa36a38079e87
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/83abe2fd5b3aeb3123b5408a5a91709c5538fb23
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Sources
- CVE-2026-80893 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-80893 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-84rp-g9wq-249m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-80893 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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