Bug 2502510 (CVE-2026-64167)

Summary: CVE-2026-64167 kernel: kho: skip KHO for crash kernel
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's kexec_handover (KHO) mechanism. This vulnerability occurs because the `kho_fill_kimage()` function unconditionally populates the kimage with KHO metadata, even when processing a crash kernel. When a crash kernel attempts to initialize KHO memory, it can try to access memory outside its reserved region, leading to a kernel paging request fault. This can result in a system crash, causing a Denial of Service (DoS) for a local user.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 17:03:20 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

kho: skip KHO for crash kernel

kho_fill_kimage() unconditionally populates the kimage with KHO
metadata for every kexec image type. When the image is a crash kernel,
this can be problematic as the crash kernel can run in a small reserved
region and the KHO scratch areas can sit outside it.
The crash kernel then faults during kho_memory_init() when it
tries phys_to_virt() on the KHO FDT address:

  Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address xxxxxxxx
  ...
    fdt_offset_ptr+...
    fdt_check_node_offset_+...
    fdt_first_property_offset+...
    fdt_get_property_namelen_+...
    fdt_getprop+...
    kho_memory_init+...
    mm_core_init+...
    start_kernel+...

kho_locate_mem_hole() already skips KHO logic for KEXEC_TYPE_CRASH
images, but kho_fill_kimage() was missing the same guard. As
kho_fill_kimage() is the single point that populates image->kho.fdt
and image->kho.scratch, fixing it here is sufficient for both arm64
and x86 as the FDT and boot_params path are bailing out when these
fields are unset.