CVE-2026-90046 (GCVE-0-2026-90046)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5
Published
2026-09-16 10:33
Modified
2026-10-19 08:57
Severity ?
7.8 (High) - CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_alloc: don't spin_trylock() in NMI on UP Patch series "mm/page_alloc: fixes for free_pages_nolock() on RT/UP". Pre-existing bugs found by Sashiko during review of this other series: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260703-alloc-trylock-v5-0-c87b714e19d3@google.com/ I have not reproduced these bugs, and I suspect there is no real-world user that is affected by them. This patch (of 2): As noted in can_spin_trylock(), using this is unsafe in this context. commit 620b46ed6ae17 ("mm/page_alloc: return NULL early from alloc_frozen_pages_nolock() in NMI on UP") fixed this on the alloc side but missed the free side. Impact: If BPF programs using these features in NMI (probably tracing) are present on non-SMP builds this might crash the kernel and is probably exploitable by local attackers for privilege escalation.
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Version: 8c57b687e8331eb80e302a2c528b18b966a9ac7a
Version: 8c57b687e8331eb80e302a2c528b18b966a9ac7a
Version: 8c57b687e8331eb80e302a2c528b18b966a9ac7a
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "mm/page_alloc.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "06c76d3c389ff504052f64b1acee44651bd847fa",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "8c57b687e8331eb80e302a2c528b18b966a9ac7a",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
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              "status": "affected",
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            {
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              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "mm/page_alloc.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "6.15"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "6.15",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.18.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.18.51",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "7.2.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.2.5",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "7.3",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.18.51",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.15",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "7.2.5",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.15",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "7.3",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "6.15",
                  "vulnerable": true
                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nmm/page_alloc: don\u0027t spin_trylock() in NMI on UP\n\nPatch series \"mm/page_alloc: fixes for free_pages_nolock() on RT/UP\".\n\nPre-existing bugs found by Sashiko during review of this other series:\nhttps://lore.kernel.org/all/20260703-alloc-trylock-v5-0-c87b714e19d3@google.com/\n\nI have not reproduced these bugs, and I suspect there is no real-world\nuser that is affected by them.\n\n\nThis patch (of 2):\n\nAs noted in can_spin_trylock(), using this is unsafe in this context. \ncommit 620b46ed6ae17 (\"mm/page_alloc: return NULL early from\nalloc_frozen_pages_nolock() in NMI on UP\") fixed this on the alloc side\nbut missed the free side.\n\nImpact: If BPF programs using these features in NMI (probably tracing) are\npresent on non-SMP builds this might crash the kernel and is probably\nexploitable by local attackers for privilege escalation."
        }
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "cvssV3_1": {
            "baseScore": 7.8,
            "baseSeverity": "HIGH",
            "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
            "version": "3.1"
          },
          "scenarios": [
            {
              "lang": "en",
              "value": "AV:L - free_pages_nolock is reached from local BPF programs (arena/bpf_map_alloc_pages and related nolock helpers) running in NMI, typically a BPF_PROG_TYPE_PERF_EVENT overflow handler installed via bpf()/perf_event_open. It is not reachable from unauthenticated network packets or in-kernel servers such as ksmbd/nfsd.\nAC:L - Scoring assumes a uniprocessor (!CONFIG_SMP) kernel, a reasonable embedded/IoT deployment. An attacker who can attach a BPF perf-event program controls the NMI that calls free_pages_nolock and can concurrently run page-allocator work so the NMI interrupts zone-\u003elock; the in-tree slub_kunit NMI overflow test shows this reentry is reliably triggerable.\nPR:L - Loading the NMI BPF program requires CAP_BPF and CAP_PERFMON, which are sub-root capabilities. BPF tokens can delegate those checks into a non-init user namespace in plausible container/tracing deployments, so this is treated as low privileges rather than init-namespace root.\nUI:N - The attacker loads the BPF program, programs the PMU, and drives local memory activity themselves. No separate victim action such as mounting a filesystem or opening a crafted file is required.\nS:U - Re-entrant buddy/zone-lock corruption stays inside the kernel\u0027s own security authority and yields local privilege escalation, not a VM, IOMMU, or other cross-boundary escape.\nC:H - Nested spin_trylock of zone-\u003elock on UP lets the NMI mutate buddy freelists while the interrupted context is mid-update, corrupting page-allocator metadata. That overlapping-page primitive can be leveraged for arbitrary kernel memory disclosure.\nI:H - The same freelist corruption is a well-known arbitrary-write and control-flow hijack primitive, and the fix commit states the bug is probably exploitable by local attackers for privilege escalation.\nA:H - Re-entrant zone-lock and buddy updates crash the kernel via oops, panic, or a DEBUG_SPINLOCK BUG on UP, which is a full availability loss."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2026-10-19T08:57:04.231Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/06c76d3c389ff504052f64b1acee44651bd847fa"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/68a069b407303e71db371df85036101e8ff59280"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3105ae628fb785d48b49256468be4f21a7b3cfc0"
        }
      ],
      "title": "mm/page_alloc: don\u0027t spin_trylock() in NMI on UP",
      "x_generator": {
        "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2026-90046",
    "datePublished": "2026-09-16T10:33:43.156Z",
    "dateReserved": "2026-09-11T19:38:34.783Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-10-19T08:57:04.231Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.2"
}


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