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CVE-2026-68163
mm/page_vma_mapped: fix device-private PMD handling
Published 2026-08-10 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem mm. Debian urgency: unimportant.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-68163 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | not affected | 6.1.190-1 | Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 13trixie | not affected | 6.12.113-1 | Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.6-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.6-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
Commit 65edfda6f3f2 ("mm/rmap: extend rmap and migration support device-private entries") introduced the concept of device-private PMD entries, but did not correctly update the rmap walk code to account for them. As a result, when page_vma_mapped_walk() encounters device-private PMD entries, it takes no action other than to acquire the PMD lock and exit. However this is highly problematic for two reasons - firstly, device private entries possess a PFN so check_pmd() needs to be called to ensure an overlapping PFN range. Secondly, and more importantly, if PVMW_MIGRATION is set the caller assumes the returned entry is a migration entry, resulting in memory corruption when the caller tries to interpret the device private entry as such. In addition, commit 146287290023 ("mm/huge_memory: implement device-private THP splitting") allowed device private PMDs to be split like THP mappings, but again did not update this code path. As a result, we might race a PMD split prior to acquiring the PMD lock. This patch addresses all of these issues by invoking check_pmd(), ensuring PMVW_MIGRATION is not set and checks whether a split raced us we do for PMD THP and migration entries. Instead of checking for a subset of the cases after taking the pmd_lock(), put device-private along with pmd_trans_huge() and pmd_is_migration_entry(). Also remove thp_migration_supported() as it is already guarded by pmd_is_migration_entry(). [akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix Raspberry Pi 1 build, per David]
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
mm/page_vma_mapped.c
- What this is
- MEMORY MANAGEMENT - RMAP (REVERSE MAPPING)MAINTAINERS section matched on mm/page_vma_mapped.c · linux-mm@kvack.org · Maintained
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Not established. This site could not find the build rule for the affected file in the kernel trees Debian ships, so it has no answer about whether Debian compiles this code. Read that as unknown, never as absent.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sid?
- ?
- not established - no Makefile entry for the affected file
Where a release above reads "not established", no build rule for the affected file was found in that release's kernel tree. That is a gap in this lookup, not a finding that the code is absent.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-10 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 7.8 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- local (AV:L)source
- EPSS
- 0.17%, higher than 5.4% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- unimportantsource
- Subsystem
- mm
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 6.19 | 7.1.6 | ab6209f4b48a |
| 6.19 | 7.2 | f84ca9b1888d |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:LAttack vector, local
- The bug is in the MM rmap/page-table walk reached only from in-kernel memory-management paths (migrate_vma finalize, rmap unmap/migration) triggered by local syscalls and GPU driver ioctls (AMD KFD, nouveau, drm_pagemap), not from network packet handling.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- An attacker with GPU/HMM access can reliably create device-private THP PMDs and drive migrate_vma/setup/finalize while racing PMD splits via concurrent threads; both sides of the race are attacker-controlled, not dependent on admin timing or uncontrollable layout.
- PR:LPrivileges required, low
- Exploitation needs only an unprivileged local user who can use the GPU/HMM stack (typical render/video group access on ML/cloud GPU nodes) to allocate device-private THP and invoke migration; it does not require real root in the init namespace.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- No victim interaction is required; memory migration and PMD splitting are driven entirely by the attacker's own process through normal GPU unified-memory/migration APIs and concurrent threads.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact is kernel page-table corruption and local privilege escalation within the host kernel security domain; it is not a VM guest-to-host escape, IOMMU bypass, or cross-authority sandbox breakout per kernel CVSS scope guidance.
- C:HConfidentiality impact, high
- Misinterpreting a device-private PMD as a migration entry corrupts page tables and rmap state; such MM corruption is readily weaponizable for arbitrary kernel memory reads, not merely a bounded leak.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- The faulty walk causes remove_migration_pmd() and related callers to install incorrect PMD/PTE contents from mis-typed entries, enabling arbitrary kernel memory writes and control-flow hijack via page-table manipulation.
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- Incorrect PMD handling during migration or concurrent THP splitting can cause kernel oops/panic, use-after-free conditions, or hung migration paths, producing full system denial of service even before successful exploitation.