CVE-2026-74600 PUBLISHED

mm/page_table_check: skip special zero mappings

Assigner: Linux
Reserved: 15.08.2026 Published: 22.08.2026 Updated: 22.08.2026

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

mm/page_table_check: skip special zero mappings

page_table_check_set() and page_table_check_clear() account mappings based on PageAnon(). Shared zero-page PTEs and huge zero PMDs are special mappings, but page_table_check can still account them as file-backed pages.

An unprivileged process can populate enough zero mappings to overflow file_map_count and hit the existing BUG_ON(). The PTE path can do this with the shared zero page, and the PMD path can do the same with huge zero mappings.

Skip special zero mappings in the user page-table accounting paths. Keep the PTE-side pte_special() check, and identify huge zero PMDs from the mapped folio instead of pmd_special(). That covers architectures where pmd_special() is a no-op without adding huge_zero_pfn checks to the generic counter helpers.

Product Status

Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from df4e817b710809425d899340dbfa8504a3ca4ba5 to b726eb3c94d23e09da0e0f46b0fa09fb2b5d99cc (excl.)
  • affected from df4e817b710809425d899340dbfa8504a3ca4ba5 to 8db4bab826ccc9ec10fa41736a48031cd338d392 (excl.)
Vendor Linux
Product Linux
Versions Default: affected
  • Version 5.17 is affected
  • unaffected from 0 to 5.17 (excl.)
  • unaffected from 7.1.9 to 7.1.* (incl.)
  • unaffected from 7.2 to * (incl.)

References