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
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 7.1.5-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 6.12.100-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | 6.1.180-1 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS | linux-realtime-6.14 +1 | No fix yet | — |
Advisories 1
- WID-SEC-2026-2852 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 12, 2026
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/76f88650763a35cbf1384c65d66d096fa31cc58d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e8a916579e427af32f2de8213dfa23c5df6e6664
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/39bb21a4bff0d70058bf752d7b5aa2e2ccc864a9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a65f49b6f7ece756394f8f0e85570020e7fd0e35
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e483da960892c41fa7f0cf0d2fc2410d65a483d6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/018e9828eb523c638fa3d9bdf0fd4956b74555b2