mm/madvise: skip device-private PMDs in cold and pageout walks
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 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/madvise: skip device-private PMDs in cold and pageout walks madvise_cold_or_pageout_pte_range() takes pmd_trans_huge_lock(), whose pmd_is_huge() check returns true for a device-private PMD. The subsequent !pmd_present() branch has a VM_BUG_ON() asserting migration is the only allowed non-present case; a device-private PMD trips it. Skip device-private PMDs in that non-present branch and continue to huge_unlock before calling pmd_folio(). Downgrade the check to VM_WARN_ON_ONCE() so an unexpected PMD softleaf logs a warning rather than panicking. Drop the thp_migration_supported() guard: it expands to IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_ARCH_SUPPORTS_PMD_SOFTLEAF), and both pmd_is_migration_entry() and pmd_is_device_private_entry() already return false when that config is not selected, so the guard suppresses only the case where the warning would already be silent. Potential trigger: an HMM-based GPU driver races with madvise(MADV_COLD)/MADV_PAGEOUT: pmd_trans_huge(*pmd) reads true, then migrate_vma_pages() flips the PMD to a device-private entry before the PMD lock is acquired.
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 7.2.4, 7.3
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 6 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-93217
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9xmw-xhvx-px4q
- 2026-10-19 Fix available: Linux/[email protected] · CNA
- 2026-10-21 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-21 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-11-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
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Sources
- CVE-2026-93217 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-93217 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9xmw-xhvx-px4q · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-93217 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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