Bug 2516454 (CVE-2026-72027)

Summary: CVE-2026-72027 kernel: mm/compaction: handle free_pages_prepare() properly in compaction_free()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
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 memory management subsystem, specifically within the `mm/compaction` component. When the `free_pages_prepare()` function fails, the `compaction_free()` function does not properly handle this error. This oversight can lead to pages that are either hardware poisoned (`PageHWPoison`) or otherwise marked as bad (`free_page_is_bad()`) being returned to the free page pool. Consequently, the reuse of these corrupted pages may lead to data corruption within the system.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-08-15 06:13:23 UTC 
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/compaction: handle free_pages_prepare() properly in compaction_free()

free_pages_prepare() can fail but compaction_free() does not handle the
failure case.  Failed pages should not be added back to cc->freepages for
future use, since they can be either PageHWPoison or free_page_is_bad()
and might cause data corruption.
Comment 1 Keith Grant 2026-08-17 16:32:33 UTC 
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026081511-CVE-2026-72027-4dc2@gregkh/T