Bug 2492453 (CVE-2026-53061)

Summary: CVE-2026-53061 kernel: dm cache: fix dirty mapping checking in passthrough mode switching
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
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Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
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OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's device-mapper (dm) cache component. This vulnerability arises from an incorrect assumption that table reloads only occur after suspension, which is violated by Logical Volume Manager (LVM) table preloading. The dirty mapping check for passthrough mode, performed during table creation, fails when metadata updates are ongoing due to preloading. This can lead to dirty mappings being loaded into passthrough mode, potentially resulting in data loss.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-06-24 18:12:54 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

dm cache: fix dirty mapping checking in passthrough mode switching

As mentioned in commit 9b1cc9f251af ("dm cache: share cache-metadata
object across inactive and active DM tables"), dm-cache assumed table
reload occurs after suspension, while LVM's table preload breaks this
assumption. The dirty mapping check for passthrough mode was designed
around this assumption and is performed during table creation, causing
the check to fail with preload while metadata updates are ongoing. This
risks loading dirty mappings into passthrough mode, resulting in data
loss.

Reproduce steps:

1. Create a writeback cache with zero migration_threshold to produce
   dirty mappings

dmsetup create cmeta --table "0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0"
dmsetup create cdata --table "0 131072 linear /dev/sdc 8192"
dmsetup create corig --table "0 262144 linear /dev/sdc 262144"
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/cmeta bs=4k count=1 oflag=direct
dmsetup create cache --table "0 262144 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \
/dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 writeback smq \
2 migration_threshold 0"

2. Preload a table in passthrough mode

dmsetup reload cache --table "0 262144 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \
/dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 passthrough smq 0"

3. Write to the first cache block to make it dirty

fio --filename=/dev/mapper/cache --name=populate --rw=write --bs=4k \
--direct=1 --size=64k

4. Resume the inactive table. Now it's possible to load the dirty block
   into passthrough mode.

dmsetup resume cache

Fix by moving the checks to the preresume phase to support table
preloading. Also remove the unused function dm_cache_metadata_all_clean.

Comment 1 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2026-06-25 08:43:22 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026062402-CVE-2026-53061-6145@gregkh/T