CVE-2026-72175
Received
Received - Intake
Race Condition in Linux Kernel HugeTLB PTE Handling
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-72175, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-08-15
Last updated on: 2026-08-17
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/proc/task_mmu: fix make_uffd_wp_huge_pte() prot-update race
Patch series "userfaultfd/pagemap: pre-existing fixes".
These are pre-existing bug fixes that were carried at the front of the
userfaultfd RWP working-set-tracking series up to v5 [1]. Per review
feedback that fixes should not sit in the middle of a feature series, they
are split out and sent on their own; the RWP series is reposted rebased on
top of this.
All six were flagged by the Sashiko AI review of the RWP series and carry
independent of RWP, apply to mm-new directly, and carry Cc: stable@.
1: fs/proc/task_mmu: a missing huge_ptep_modify_prot_start() in
make_uffd_wp_huge_pte() can lose hardware Dirty/Accessed updates
when PAGEMAP_SCAN write-protects a hugetlb PTE.
2: fs/proc/task_mmu: pagemap_scan_hugetlb_entry() compares the range
against HPAGE_SIZE rather than the hstate page size, so it never
write-protects gigantic hugetlb pages.
3: fs/proc/task_mmu: PAGEMAP_SCAN with PM_SCAN_WP_MATCHING over an
unpopulated hugetlb range self-deadlocks -- pagemap_scan_pte_hole()
calls uffd_wp_range() while walk_hugetlb_range() holds the hugetlb
vma lock for read, and hugetlb_change_protection() then takes it
for write. Install the marker inline instead.
4: mm/huge_memory: change_non_present_huge_pmd() drops pmd_swp_uffd_wp
on a device-private PMD permission downgrade, silently losing the
uffd-wp marker.
5: userfaultfd: must_wait() applies pte_write() to a locklessly read
PTE without checking pte_present(), so swap/migration entries
decode random offset bits and a thread can stay parked on a stale
fault.
6: userfaultfd: __VMA_UFFD_FLAGS feeds VMA_UFFD_MINOR_BIT (41) to
mk_vma_flags() unconditionally, an out-of-bounds write into the
single-word vma_flags_t on 32-bit. Build the mask from config-gated
per-mode masks so an unavailable bit is never materialised.
This patch (of 6):
make_uffd_wp_huge_pte() arms the UFFD_WP bit on a present HugeTLB PTE by
calling huge_ptep_modify_prot_commit() with a ptent snapshot that was
fetched without the corresponding huge_ptep_modify_prot_start(). The
start helper is what atomically clears the entry so the kernel-owned
snapshot stays consistent until the commit; without it, the hardware may
set Dirty or Accessed in the live PTE between the original read and the
commit, and huge_ptep_modify_prot_commit() (whose generic implementation
just calls set_huge_pte_at()) then writes the stale snapshot back over the
live hardware bits, losing the update.
The non-hugetlb sibling make_uffd_wp_pte() does this correctly via
ptep_modify_prot_start() / ptep_modify_prot_commit(). Mirror that pattern
for the present-PTE branch. The migration case stays as-is -- migration
entries are non-present, so there's no hardware update to race against.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
