Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
High · 7.1 CVE-2026-72043 EUVD-2026-59001GHSA-f7xg-fgxp-p6w3

LoongArch: Fix missing dirty page tracking in {pte,pmd}_wrprotect()

Published Aug 15, 2026 · Updated Aug 17, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.17 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.17 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.17 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

LoongArch: Fix missing dirty page tracking in {pte,pmd}_wrprotect()

When hardware page table walker (PTW) is enabled on LoongArch, the CPU
may set _PAGE_DIRTY directly in the page table entry during a write TLB
miss, without going through the software TLB store handler. The software
TLB store handler (tlbex.S:254) sets both _PAGE_DIRTY and_PAGE_MODIFIED
together:

ori t0, t0, (_PAGE_VALID | _PAGE_DIRTY | _PAGE_MODIFIED)

Since hardware PTW only sets _PAGE_DIRTY, the software-only bit, i.e.
_PAGE_MODIFIED is left unchanged. This creates a window where a PTE has
_PAGE_DIRTY set (hardware knows the page is dirty) but _PAGE_MODIFIED
clear (software is unaware).

When fork()/clone() triggers copy-on-write, __copy_present_ptes() calls
pte_wrprotect(), which unconditionally clears both the _PAGE_WRITE and
_PAGE_DIRTY bits:

pte_val(pte) &= ~(_PAGE_WRITE | _PAGE_DIRTY);

Since _PAGE_MODIFIED was never set, the dirtiness information is lost
completely. Subsequently, when memory pressure triggers page reclaim,
page_mkclean() / try_to_unmap() sees the page as clean (i.e. pte_dirty()
returns false) and the page may be freed without writeback, causing data
corruption.

Fix this by propagating the _PAGE_DIRTY bit to the _PAGE_MODIFIED bit in
both pte_wrprotect() and pmd_wrprotect() before clearing writeable bits:

if (pte_val(pte) & _PAGE_DIRTY)
pte_val(pte) |= _PAGE_MODIFIED;

The pmd_wrprotect() fix handles the CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE case,
where pmd entries need the same treatment.

This ensures the software dirty tracking bit (checked by pte_dirty() and
pmd_dirty(), which read both the _PAGE_DIRTY and _PAGE_MODIFIED bits) is
preserved across fork COW write-protection.

The issue was found by the LTP madvise09 test case, which exercises page
reclaim after "madvise(MADV_FREE), write and fork" operation sequence on
private anonymous mappings.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.19 6.1.178

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 7.1.5-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.100-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.180-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +23 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 —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 +1 No fix yet —

Advisories 1

References