CVE Intelligence
Unknown

CVE-2026-74672 — mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF Patch series "mm: fix UAF caused by race between ptdump and vmap pgtable freeing", v6. Kernel page table walkers fall into two broad categories - those ranges where no exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range_lockless() and those where exclusion is required via walk_kernel_page_table_range() or walk_page_range_debug(). The former category is used only by arm64 arch code operating on ranges it both wholly owns and does not concurrently write. The latter category consists of kernel page table walkers operating on ranges that are wholly owned (but which need exclusion against concurrent writers). The lock used for exclusion is the mmap lock, and for kernel ranges this is the mmap lock on init_mm. ptdump is a special case being both the only user of walk_page_range_debug(), and the only case in which it walks ranges it does not own. This presents a problem, as page tables may be freed under ptdump. And indeed there is a use-after-free bug in the kernel as a result, which this series addresses. vmap promotes page tables to huge leaf entries where possible, freeing the lower page table when it does. It does this with no meaningful locks held against concurrent ptdump walks. As a result, use-after-free can currently occur. This series addresses the issue by having the vmap huge promotion logic acquire the mmap read lock while both setting the huge page table entry and freeing the prior leaf page table. The ptdump code already acquires the mmap write lock, so by doing so we ensure that the ptdump walker only ever observes either the huge page table entry or the existing page table entry, and nothing is freed underneath it. A mitigation for this issue was already applied for arm64 in commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), which this series has to deal with carefully. This mitigation resolves the issue by acquiring the mmap read lock on init_mm on vmap page table free if a ptdump is in progress. However the fix in this series would cause a deadlock if we were to simply apply it for arm64 without also reverting the change. This is because vmap may acquire the read lock before ptdump attempts to acquire the write lock, which then gets queued, and rwsem starvation rules mean that the (unacknowledged) nested mmap read lock in the arm64 code would also block, meaning the original read lock is never released and thus deadlock. This series works around this by #ifndef CONFIG_ARM64'ing the mmap read lock in vmap logic, then partially reverting commit fa93b45fd397 ("arm64: Enable vmalloc-huge with ptdump"), keeping the enablement of huge vmap support, and removing the ifdeffery with the partial revert patch. There are related issues that are also addressed in this series: * x86 page attribute logic, specifically Change Page Attributes (CPA), implements a feature whereby huge ranges can be collapsed into huge leaf entries. This can similarly cause a UAF when done in parallel with a ptdump walk, so similarly acquire the init_mm mmap lock to avoid this. * The CPA logic allows concurrent page table manipulation and CPA collapse, meaning the former risks accessing a page table the latter frees. Fix this by acquiring mmap write lock on init_mm across the whole CPA collapse operation and read lock on the page table manipulation. * x86 and arm64 permit walks of non-kernel mm's (both allowing efi mm walks, and in x86's case arbitrary mm's), so we ensure kernel mappings remain stable by locking the init_mm as well as the mm being walked. The ordering of patches is established for both strict dependencies (the arm64 partial revert in particular has to be done after the vmap changes) and logical ones (the non-kernel mm fix only makes sense once the vmap/CPA fixes are in place). This patch (of 3): Currently there is a nasty ra ---truncated---

Published Aug 22, 2026 · Updated Oct 23, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP, GitHub Security Advisories · CNA: Linux

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.2% (30-day exploitation probability)+1

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.17%
ahead of 7% of scored CVEs · Oct 27, 2026
Affects
Linux
Linux
CVSS base
—
Score not published yet.

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Linux Linux).
  2. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
  3. Search available logs for exploit probes, errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Linux Linux ≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < 39c6772b56a6bbdd62794833f74232971d94d7c9≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < 8d7f560f4b0482d469de962fbe4b59c37561052e≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < 7ac8a333dd41ba5e1b4e8c6edbc48b15446c5468≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < c5bf8cd148cfea948cfa3db71da427294b20db0f≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < 3cc26c8907db0f5d1ff8043b5851ee572e9b3c98≥ b6bdb7517c3d3f41f20e5c2948d6bc3f8897394e and < 26444eb71465c9934d9d418ef69c43f61185329bversion 31895cfd79564111cdd5a9f48c5d491ae26a238eversion 9c7f7bdb1932f8c1e5f80d32c717184701afe701
and 7 more version acdb4981644c8e31ccee294bdefff475c0cf587bversion 0454e2fad9306961540ee7e84da47a8e345b7d22≥ 4.4.125 and < 4.5≥ 4.9.91 and < 4.10≥ 4.14.31 and < 4.15≥ 4.15.14 and < 4.16version 4.16
Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 15, 2026 → Oct 27, 2026 · 12 reading(s) · max 0.17%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Not enough vector or weakness data: use the affected application’s logs as a starting point.
application logs

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Record published
    Oct 15, 2026
  • Affected products added · linux/linux
    Oct 15, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Source status changed · → Received
    Oct 15, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 15, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    Aug 22, 2026 · Linux

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 1× References added · Oct 23, 2026 – Oct 23, 2026
  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 15, 2026 – Oct 15, 2026

References

8 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Linux
every CVE for this vendor

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-99215 power: supply: core: prevent unregistering a power supply while a callback runs 5h
  • CVE-2026-99216 Drivers: hv: Don't reset VMBus connection state on error/exit paths 5h
  • CVE-2026-99214 drm/vc4: hdmi: Move packet RAM enable to PM runtime 5h
  • CVE-2026-99213 vsock: treat TCP_CLOSING as once-established 5h
  • CVE-2026-99212 net/rds: don't let the rdma_cm destroy an id RDS still owns on route failure 5h
  • CVE-2026-99211 netlink: reset skb headers before unicast and multicast filtering 5h

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No CVSS score published by NVD, the CNA, CISA or GitHub so far.
  • No fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
  • No CISA SSVC assessment.
  • No CWE classification.
  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-74672 is "mm/vmalloc: acquire init_mm lock on huge vmap to avoid ptdump UAF", rated Unknown. It affects Linux (Linux); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. EPSS 0.17% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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