Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm: don't try to NUMA-migrate COW pages that have other uses
Oded Gabbay reports that enabling NUMA balancing causes corruption with
his Gaudi accelerator test load:
"All the details are in the bug, but the bottom line is that somehow,
this patch causes corruption when the numa balancing feature is
enabled AND we don't use process affinity AND we use GUP to pin pages
so our accelerator can DMA to/from system memory.
Either disabling numa balancing, using process affinity to bind to
specific numa-node or reverting this patch causes the bug to
disappear"
and Oded bisected the issue to commit 09854ba94c6a ("mm: do_wp_page()
simplification").
Now, the NUMA balancing shouldn't actually be changing the writability
of a page, and as such shouldn't matter for COW. But it appears it
does. Suspicious.
However, regardless of that, the condition for enabling NUMA faults in
change_pte_range() is nonsensical. It uses "page_mapcount(page)" to
decide if a COW page should be NUMA-protected or not, and that makes
absolutely no sense.
The number of mappings a page has is irrelevant: not only does GUP get a
reference to a page as in Oded's case, but the other mappings migth be
paged out and the only reference to them would be in the page count.
Since we should never try to NUMA-balance a page that we can't move
anyway due to other references, just fix the code to use 'page_count()'.
Oded confirms that that fixes his issue.
Now, this does imply that something in NUMA balancing ends up changing
page protections (other than the obvious one of making the page
inaccessible to get the NUMA faulting information). Otherwise the COW
simplification wouldn't matter - since doing the GUP on the page would
make sure it's writable.
The cause of that permission change would be good to figure out too,
since it clearly results in spurious COW events - but fixing the
nonsensical test that just happened to work before is obviously the
CorrectThing(tm) to do regardless.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 5.9 | 5.10.102 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 5.16.11-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 5.16.11-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | 5.16.11-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +25 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +26 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-intel-iotg-5.15 | 5.15.0-1008.11~20.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-64kb +5 | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-azure +2 | 5.14.21-150500.33.63.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP5 | kernel-docs | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLES 15 SP4 | kernel-64kb +6 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLES 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
Show 10 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP4 | kernel-docs +4 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.5 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.4 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150400.15.88.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Micro 5.3 | kernel-rt +1 | 5.14.21-150400.15.88.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP5 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP5_Update_17 +1 | 1-150500.11.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1, SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE Live Patching 15 SP4 | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP4_Update_29 | 1-150400.9.3.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE HPC 15 SP4 | kernel-64kb +5 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SLE HPC 15 SP4 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP5 | kernel-rt +3 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | kernel-syms +3 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1.150400.24.62.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | kernel-syms +2 | 5.14.21-150400.24.128.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | dtb-aarch64 +9 | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-azure +2 | 5.14.21-150500.33.63.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-docs | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.2 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | kernel-rt +3 | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-default | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-default-base | 5.14.21-150500.55.73.1.150500.6.33.8 | SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | kernel-rt | 5.14.21-150500.13.64.1 | SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 |
Advisories 6
- WID-SEC-2024-1625 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen ermöglichen nicht spezifizierten Angriff BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Jul 27, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2947-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2902-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2929-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2024:2894-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · May 2, 2025