powerpc/mm: fix wrong addr_pfn tracking in compound vmemmap population
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: 4 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: powerpc/mm: fix wrong addr_pfn tracking in compound vmemmap population vmemmap_populate_compound_pages() uses addr_pfn to determine the PFN offset within a compound page and to decide whether the current vmemmap slot should be populated as a head page mapping or should reuse a tail page mapping. However, addr_pfn is advanced manually in parallel with addr. The loop itself progresses in vmemmap address space, so each PAGE_SIZE step in addr covers PAGE_SIZE / sizeof(struct page) struct page slots. Since addr_pfn is compared against nr_pages in data-PFN units, it should advance by the same number of PFNs. The existing manual increments do not match that and therefore do not reliably track the PFN corresponding to the current addr. As a result, pfn_offset can be computed from the wrong PFN and the code can make the head/tail decision for the wrong compound-page position. Fix this by deriving addr_pfn directly from the current vmemmap address instead of carrying it as loop state.
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 6.6.157, 6.12.110, 6.18.51, 7.2.5, 7.3
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 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: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-89961
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-25fw-r826-pmc4
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-24 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-24 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-10-29 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-11-06 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b96be860673f9fbbf12cdadb0b25fc4d6d4d207f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e163c7184acf36ac20a248498f4a16016057ca01
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9c914b7a0bd18834505c65f22225ce22c152b2d9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7968852a7ca3ce81477ec5b4494a28d612f35a97
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/89a4ae32764172468dea303eb6ae90fe6c859712
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Sources
- CVE-2026-89961 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-89961 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-25fw-r826-pmc4 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-89961 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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