mm/hugetlb: fix PTE marker handling in hugetlb_change_protection()

Summary

CVECVE-2022-49760
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerLinux
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2025-03-27 17:15:41 UTC
Updated2026-08-04 10:17:55 UTC
DescriptionIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: fix PTE marker handling in hugetlb_change_protection() Patch series "mm/hugetlb: uffd-wp fixes for hugetlb_change_protection()". Playing with virtio-mem and background snapshots (using uffd-wp) on hugetlb in QEMU, I managed to trigger a VM_BUG_ON(). Looking into the details, hugetlb_change_protection() seems to not handle uffd-wp correctly in all cases. Patch #1 fixes my test case. I don't have reproducers for patch #2, as it requires running into migration entries. I did not yet check in detail yet if !hugetlb code requires similar care. This patch (of 2): There are two problematic cases when stumbling over a PTE marker in hugetlb_change_protection(): (1) We protect an uffd-wp PTE marker a second time using uffd-wp: we will end up in the "!huge_pte_none(pte)" case and mess up the PTE marker. (2) We unprotect a uffd-wp PTE marker: we will similarly end up in the "!huge_pte_none(pte)" case even though we cleared the PTE, because the "pte" variable is stale. We'll mess up the PTE marker. For example, if we later stumble over such a "wrongly modified" PTE marker, we'll treat it like a present PTE that maps some garbage page. This can, for example, be triggered by mapping a memfd backed by huge pages, registering uffd-wp, uffd-wp'ing an unmapped page and (a) uffd-wp'ing it a second time; or (b) uffd-unprotecting it; or (c) unregistering uffd-wp. Then, ff we trigger fallocate(FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE) on that file range, we will run into a VM_BUG_ON: [ 195.039560] page:00000000ba1f2987 refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x0 [ 195.039565] flags: 0x7ffffc0001000(reserved|node=0|zone=0|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) [ 195.039568] raw: 0007ffffc0001000 ffffe742c0000008 ffffe742c0000008 0000000000000000 [ 195.039569] raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000001ffffffff 0000000000000000 [ 195.039569] page dumped because: VM_BUG_ON_PAGE(compound && !PageHead(page)) [ 195.039573] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 195.039574] kernel BUG at mm/rmap.c:1346! [ 195.039579] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 195.039581] CPU: 7 PID: 4777 Comm: qemu-system-x86 Not tainted 6.0.12-200.fc36.x86_64 #1 [ 195.039583] Hardware name: LENOVO 20WNS1F81N/20WNS1F81N, BIOS N35ET50W (1.50 ) 09/15/2022 [ 195.039584] RIP: 0010:page_remove_rmap+0x45b/0x550 [ 195.039588] Code: [...] [ 195.039589] RSP: 0018:ffffbc03c3633ba8 EFLAGS: 00010292 [ 195.039591] RAX: 0000000000000040 RBX: ffffe742c0000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 195.039592] RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: ffffffff8e7aac1a RDI: 00000000ffffffff [ 195.039592] RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffbc03c3633a08 [ 195.039593] R10: 0000000000000003 R11: ffffffff8f146328 R12: ffff9b04c42754b0 [ 195.039594] R13: ffffffff8fcc6328 R14: ffffbc03c3633c80 R15: ffff9b0484ab9100 [ 195.039595] FS: 00007fc7aaf68640(0000) GS:ffff9b0bbf7c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 195.039596] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 195.039597] CR2: 000055d402c49110 CR3: 0000000159392003 CR4: 0000000000772ee0 [ 195.039598] PKRU: 55555554 [ 195.039599] Call Trace: [ 195.039600] <TASK> [ 195.039602] __unmap_hugepage_range+0x33b/0x7d0 [ 195.039605] unmap_hugepage_range+0x55/0x70 [ 195.039608] hugetlb_vmdelete_list+0x77/0xa0 [ 195.039611] hugetlbfs_fallocate+0x410/0x550 [ 195.039612] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x23/0x40 [ 195.039616] vfs_fallocate+0x12e/0x360 [ 195.039618] __x64_sys_fallocate+0x40/0x70 [ 195.039620] do_syscall_64+0x58/0x80 [ 195.039623] ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x17/0x40 [ 195.039624] ? do_syscall_64+0x67/0x80 [ 195.039626] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd [ 195.039628] RIP: 0033:0x7fc7b590651f [ 195.039653] Code: [...] [ 195.039654] RSP: 002b:00007fc7aaf66e70 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000011d [ 195.039655] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000558ef4b7f370 RCX: 00007fc7b590651f ---truncated---

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.5 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS: 0.001620000 probability, percentile 0.058650000 (date 2026-08-05)

Problem Types: NVD-CWE-noinfo


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Primary5.5MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67Secondary7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel All All All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 6.2 rc1 All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 6.2 rc2 All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 6.2 rc3 All All
Operating System Linux Linux Kernel 6.2 rc4 All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Linux Linux affected 60dfaad65aa97fb6755b9798a6b3c9e79bcd5930 6062c992e912df1eedad52cf64efb3d48e8d35c5 git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 60dfaad65aa97fb6755b9798a6b3c9e79bcd5930 0e678153f5be7e6c8d28835f5a678618da4b7a9c git Not specified
CNA Linux Linux affected 5.19 Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 5.19 semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.1.8 6.1.* semver Not specified
CNA Linux Linux unaffected 6.2 * original_commit_for_fix Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
git.kernel.org/stable/c/0e678153f5be7e6c8d28835f5a678618da4b7a9c 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
git.kernel.org/stable/c/6062c992e912df1eedad52cf64efb3d48e8d35c5 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 git.kernel.org Patch
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

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