Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
vmw_balloon: indicate success when effectively deflating during migration
When migrating a balloon page, we first deflate the old page to then
inflate the new page.
However, if inflating the new page succeeded, we effectively deflated the
old page, reducing the balloon size.
In that case, the migration actually worked: similar to migrating+
immediately deflating the new page. The old page will be freed back to
the buddy.
Right now, the core will leave the page be marked as isolated (as we
returned an error). When later trying to putback that page, we will run
into the WARN_ON_ONCE() in balloon_page_putback().
That handling was changed in commit 3544c4faccb8 ("mm/balloon_compaction:
stop using __ClearPageMovable()"); before that change, we would have
tolerated that way of handling it.
To fix it, let's just return 0 in that case, making the core effectively
just clear the "isolated" flag + freeing it back to the buddy as if the
migration succeeded. Note that the new page will also get freed when the
core puts the last reference.
Note that this also makes it all be more consistent: we will no longer
unisolate the page in the balloon driver while keeping it marked as being
isolated in migration core.
This was found by code inspection.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 6.17 | 6.17.6 |
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.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux | 6.17.0-14.14 | USN-8029-1 |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux-aws +2 | 6.17.0-1007.7 | USN-8030-1, USN-8029-2 |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux-azure +1 | 6.17.0-1008.8 | USN-8029-3, USN-8029-1 |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux-azure-fde | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux-realtime | 6.17.0-1006.7 | USN-8029-1 |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | linux-riscv | 6.17.0-14.14.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-aws-6.17 +1 | 6.17.0-1007.7~24.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-gcp-6.17 | 6.17.0-1008.8~24.04.1 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-nvidia-6.17 | 6.17.0-1008.8 | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-oem-6.17 | 6.17.0-1011.11 | USN-8048-1 |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux-riscv +10 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux-riscv +32 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +28 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS | linux-realtime-6.17 | 6.17.0-1006.7~24.04.1 | — |
Advisories 6
- WID-SEC-2025-2868 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 12, 2026
- USN-8029-2 linux-aws, linux-oracle vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 3, 2026
- USN-8048-1 linux-oem-6.17 vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 3, 2026
- USN-8029-3 linux-azure vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 3, 2026
- USN-8030-1 linux-gcp vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 3, 2026
- USN-8029-1 linux, linux-raspi, linux-realtime vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 3, 2026