CVE-2026-74599

What the bug is

Previous commits have established the invariant that kernel page table freeing is performed while an mmap read lock on init_mm is held, which fixes races between ptdump and kernel page table freeing over init_mm. However, x86 and arm64 can perform a ptdump over an mm other than init_mm via ptdump_walk_pgd() and since kernel memory ranges are shared across non-kernel mm's, this means that the race still exists for these cases. Fix this by acquiring a nested mmap write lock for init_mm in ptdump_walk_pgd(). This is safe as we take this after mmap write locking the mm, and nothing acquires the init_mm lock first before locking an arbitrary mm, so no deadlock is possible. Also update walk_page_range_debug() to assert that init_mm is write locked, add a comment explaining why and remove some redundant code, and eliminate the unnecessary and confusing invocation of walk_kernel_page_table_range(). We can safely remove the non-NULL check for walk.mm, as the mmap lock asserts would NULL pointer deref if it was (and of course no callers do this). The first point at which ptdump can race kernel page table freeing is commit b6bdb7517c3d ("mm/vmalloc: add interfaces to free unmapped page table"), so we target this in the Fixes tag.

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/pagewalk.c
mm/ptdump.c

What this is

MEMORY MANAGEMENT - COREMAINTAINERS section matched on mm/pagewalk.c · linux-mm@kvack.org · Maintained

Check it on the machine

grep -wE 'CONFIG_PTDUMP|CONFIG_PTDUMP_CORE' /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this, but not on every flavour. At least one release below builds the code on some of its kernel flavours and not on others, so the answer depends on the architecture and flavour installed.

• bookwormYnot built on armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, armhf/rt/armmp, ppc64el/powerpc64le
• trixieYnot built on armel/rpi, armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, armhf/rt/armmp, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x
• forky, sidYnot built on armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, loong64/loong64, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k, riscv64/riscv64, s390x/s390x
• bookworm · linux-6.12Ynot built on armhf/armmp, armhf/armmp-lpae, armhf/rt/armmp, ppc64el/powerpc64le, ppc64el/powerpc64le-64k

Y

built in where it is built at all; some flavours do not build it

Build switches

CONFIG_PTDUMP, CONFIG_PTDUMP_CORE

Reads as

all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.

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 kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published

2026-08-22 (2 months ago)source

CVSS

no vector published, unrated

Attack vector

not published

EPSS

0.17%, higher than 6.2% of all CVEssource

CISA KEV

not listedthe KEV catalogue

Debian urgency

not yet assignedsource

Subsystem

mm

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

Introduced	Fixed in	Commit
4.16	5.10.266	3c0391b9a774
4.16	5.15.217	cbd9583bb6f7
4.16	6.6.153	76df4edf7d61
4.16	6.12.105	b9c6d048bdfa
4.16	6.18.45	7f740664aec1
4.16	7.1.9	4adc4c9a9a43
4.16	7.2	27c32e553834
4.4.125	0	0
4.9.91	0	0
4.14.31	0	0
4.15.14	0	0

Debian advisories