Bug 2468174 (CVE-2026-43388) - CVE-2026-43388 kernel: mm/damon/core: clear walk_control on inactive context in damos_walk()
Summary: CVE-2026-43388 kernel: mm/damon/core: clear walk_control on inactive context ...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-43388
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
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Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-05-08 15:03 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-05-08 21:35 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-05-08 15:03:01 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/damon/core: clear walk_control on inactive context in damos_walk()

damos_walk() sets ctx->walk_control to the caller-provided control
structure before checking whether the context is running.  If the context
is inactive (damon_is_running() returns false), the function returns
-EINVAL without clearing ctx->walk_control.  This leaves a dangling
pointer to a stack-allocated structure that will be freed when the caller
returns.

This is structurally identical to the bug fixed in commit f9132fbc2e83
("mm/damon/core: remove call_control in inactive contexts") for
damon_call(), which had the same pattern of linking a control object and
returning an error without unlinking it.

The dangling walk_control pointer can cause:
1. Use-after-free if the context is later started and kdamond
   dereferences ctx->walk_control (e.g., in damos_walk_cancel()
   which writes to control->canceled and calls complete())
2. Permanent -EBUSY from subsequent damos_walk() calls, since the
   stale pointer is non-NULL

Nonetheless, the real user impact is quite restrictive.  The
use-after-free is impossible because there is no damos_walk() callers who
starts the context later.  The permanent -EBUSY can actually confuse
users, as DAMON is not running.  But the symptom is kept only while the
context is turned off.  Turning it on again will make DAMON internally
uses a newly generated damon_ctx object that doesn't have the invalid
damos_walk_control pointer, so everything will work fine again.

Fix this by clearing ctx->walk_control under walk_control_lock before
returning -EINVAL, mirroring the fix pattern from f9132fbc2e83.


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