Bug 2482175 (CVE-2026-46029)

Summary:	CVE-2026-46029 kernel: mm/slab: return NULL early from kmalloc_nolock() in NMI on UP
Product:	[Other] Security Response	Reporter:	OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component:	vulnerability	Assignee:	Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status:	NEW ---	QA Contact:
Severity:	unspecified	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	unspecified	CC:	rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone:	---	Keywords:	Security
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	---
Doc Text:	A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. In uniprocessor (UP) kernel configurations, a race condition can occur within the slab memory allocator when kmalloc_nolock() is invoked from a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) context. This allows the allocator to attempt to acquire a spinlock that is already held, leading to corruption of the slab's internal state. The most important consequence is a system crash, resulting in a denial of service.	Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:		Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-27 15:14:51 UTC

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/slab: return NULL early from kmalloc_nolock() in NMI on UP

On UP kernels (!CONFIG_SMP), spin_trylock() is a no-op that
unconditionally succeeds even when the lock is already held. As a
result, kmalloc_nolock() called from NMI context can re-enter the slab
allocator and acquire n->list_lock that the interrupted context is
already holding, corrupting slab state.

With CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK on UP, the following BUG is triggered with
the slub_kunit test module:

  BUG: spinlock trylock failure on UP on CPU#0, kunit_try_catch/243
  [...]
  Call Trace:
   <NMI>
   dump_stack_lvl+0x3f/0x60
   do_raw_spin_trylock+0x41/0x50
   _raw_spin_trylock+0x24/0x50
   get_from_partial_node+0x120/0x4d0
   ___slab_alloc+0x8a/0x4c0
   kmalloc_nolock_noprof+0x164/0x310
   [...]
   </NMI>

Fix this by returning NULL early when invoked from NMI on a UP kernel.

Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-05-27 20:09:38 UTC

Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026052748-CVE-2026-46029-2bc5@gregkh/T