Bug 2513294 (CVE-2026-68172)

Summary: CVE-2026-68172 kernel: arm64: make huge_ptep_get handled unaligned addresses
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: akhatavk, aos-team-art-private, asdas, dpaolell, jdelft, jupierce, lgarciaa, mbiarnes, ppalepu, ppostler, prdhamdh, rhel-process-autobot, sghai, sidsharm, suppawar, vlaad, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel, specifically within the `huge_ptep_get()` helper function for the arm64 architecture. When this function is provided with an unaligned virtual address, it can incorrectly process Page Table Entries (PTEs). This can lead to the kernel dereferencing invalid memory pointers, potentially allowing access to unowned physical memory and ultimately causing a system crash (Denial of Service).
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-10 12:29:22 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

arm64: make huge_ptep_get handled unaligned addresses

huge_ptep_get() can be handed a virtual address pointing to the middle
of a contpmd/contpte mapped hugetlb folio (examples of callers are
pagemap_hugetlb_range, page_mapped_in_vma).

The arm64 helper rewalks the pgtables in find_num_contig to answer
whether the huge pte we have maps a contpmd or a contpte hugetlb folio,
and returns CONT_PMDS or CONT_PTES, so that it can collect a/d bits over
the contiguous ptes. We can falsely return CONT_PTES instead of
CONT_PMDS if the addr is not aligned. On systems where CONT_PTES !=
CONT_PMDS (meaning page size is 16K), we could collect excess A/D bit
state, meaning extra work for the kernel. Even worse, we may iterate
beyond the PTE table and dereference a garbage ptep pointer to access
physical memory we don't own. Since the ptep pointer is a linear map
address, we may run off the end of the linear map or into a hole,
dereference a VA not mapped into the kernel pgtables and cause kernel
panic.

Fix this by aligning the pmdp pointer down to a contpmd base before
checking equality with the passed huge pte pointer, to correctly answer
whether the huge pte is the base of a contpmd block.