Bug 2507169 (CVE-2026-64302)

Summary: CVE-2026-64302 kernel: x86/mm: Fix freeing of PMD-sized vmemmap pages
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: unspecified    
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. A local user could exploit an issue in the `pagetable_free()` function, which incorrectly handles `vmemmap` pages. This improper memory management leads to a memory leak, where only a portion of the allocated memory is freed. Consequently, this can result in a Denial of Service (DoS) due to resource exhaustion.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-25 10:08:42 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

x86/mm: Fix freeing of PMD-sized vmemmap pages

Commit bf9e4e30f353 ("x86/mm: use pagetable_free()"), switched from
freeing non-boot page tables through __free_pages() to
pagetable_free().

However, the function is also called to free vmemmap pages.

Given that vmemmap pages are not page tables, already the page_ptdesc(page)
is wrong. But worse, pagetable_free() calls:

	__free_pages(page, compound_order(page));

Since vmemmap pages are not compound pages (see vmemmap_alloc_block())
-- except for HVO, which doesn't apply here -- only first page of a
PMD-sized vmemmap page is freed, leaking the other ones.

Fix it by properly decoupling pagetable and vmemmap freeing.
free_pagetable() no longer has to mess with SECTION_INFO, as only the
vmemmap is marked like that in register_page_bootmem_memmap().

The indentation in remove_pmd_table() is messed up. Fix that while
touching it.

Bootmem info handling will soon be fixed up. For now, handle it
similar to free_pagetable(), just avoiding the ifdef.

[ dhansen: changelog munging. More imperative voice ]