CVE-2023-52490: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: migrate: fix getting incorrect page mapping during page migration When runni...

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: migrate: fix getting incorrect page mapping during page migration When running stress-ng testing, we found below kernel crash after a few hours: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 pc : dentry_name+0xd8/0x224 lr : pointer+0x22c/0x370 sp : ffff800025f134c0 ...... Call trace: dentry_name+0xd8/0x224 pointer+0x22c/0x370 vsnprintf+0x1ec/0x730 vscnprintf+0x2c/0x60 vprintk_store+0x70/0x234 vprintk_emit+0xe0/0x24c vprintk_default+0x3c/0x44 vprintk_func+0x84/0x2d0 printk+0x64/0x88 __dump_page+0x52c/0x530 dump_page+0x14/0x20 set_migratetype_isolate+0x110/0x224 start_isolate_page_range+0xc4/0x20c offline_pages+0x124/0x474 memory_block_offline+0x44/0xf4 memory_subsys_offline+0x3c/0x70 device_offline+0xf0/0x120 ...... After analyzing the vmcore, I found this issue is caused by page migration. The scenario is that, one thread is doing page migration, and we will use the target page's ->mapping field to save 'anon_vma' pointer between page unmap and page move, and now the target page is locked and refcount is 1. Currently, there is another stress-ng thread performing memory hotplug, attempting to offline the target page that is being migrated. It discovers that the refcount of this target page is 1, preventing the offline operation, thus proceeding to dump the page. However, page_mapping() of the target page may return an incorrect file mapping to crash the system in dump_mapping(), since the target page->mapping only saves 'anon_vma' pointer without setting PAGE_MAPPING_ANON flag. There are seveval ways to fix this issue: (1) Setting the PAGE_MAPPING_ANON flag for target page's ->mapping when saving 'anon_vma', but this can confuse PageAnon() for PFN walkers, since the target page has not built mappings yet. (2) Getting the page lock to call page_mapping() in __dump_page() to avoid crashing the system, however, there are still some PFN walkers that call page_mapping() without holding the page lock, such as compaction. (3) Using target page->private field to save the 'anon_vma' pointer and 2 bits page state, just as page->mapping records an anonymous page, which can remove the page_mapping() impact for PFN walkers and also seems a simple way. So I choose option 3 to fix this issue, and this can also fix other potential issues for PFN walkers, such as compaction.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1

5.5/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS Probability

0.28%

19.3th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

Vendor	Product	Versions
Linux	Linux Kernel	>= 6.3, < 6.6.15
Linux	Linux Kernel	>= 6.7, < 6.7.3

References

Timeline

Published: Mar 11, 2024
Last Modified: Jun 17, 2026
Status: Modified

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-52490?

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: migrate: fix getting incorrect page mapping during page migration When running stress-ng testing, we found below kernel crash after a few hours: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 pc : dentry_name+0xd8/0x224 lr : pointer+0x22c/0x370 sp : ffff800025f134c0 ...... Call trace: dentry_name+0xd8/0x224 pointer+0x22c/0x370 vsnprintf+0x1ec/0x730 vscnprintf+0x2c/0x60 vprintk_store+0x70/0x234 vprintk_emit+0xe0/0x24c vprintk_default+0x3c/0x44 vprintk_func+0x84/0x2d0 printk+0x64/0x88 __dump_page+0x52c/0x530 dump_page+0x14/0x20 set_migratetype_isolate+0x110/0x224 start_isolate_page_range+0xc4/0x20c offline_pages+0x124/0x474 memory_block_offline+0x44/0xf4 memory_subsys_offline+0x3c/0x70 device_offline+0xf0/0x120 ...... After analyzing the vmcore, I found this issue is caused by page migration. The scenario is that, one thread is doing page migration, and we will use the target page's ->mapping field to save 'anon_vma' pointer between page unmap and page move, and now the target page is locked and refcount is 1. Currently, there is another stress-ng thread performing memory hotplug, attempting to offline the target page that is being migrated. It discovers that the refcount of this target page is 1, preventing the offline operation, thus proceeding to dump the page. However, page_mapping() of the target page may return an incorrect file mapping to crash the system in dump_mapping(), since the target page->mapping only saves 'anon_vma' pointer without setting PAGE_MAPPING_ANON flag. There are seveval ways to fix this issue: (1) Setting the PAGE_MAPPING_ANON flag for target page's ->mapping when saving 'anon_vma', but this can confuse PageAnon() for PFN walkers, since the target page has not built mappings yet. (2) Getting the page lock to call page_mapping() in __dump_page() to avoid crashing the system, however, there are still some PFN walkers that call page_mapping() without holding the page lock, such as compaction. (3) Using target page->private field to save the 'anon_vma' pointer and 2 bits page state, just as page->mapping records an anonymous page, which can remove the page_mapping() impact for PFN walkers and also seems a simple way. So I choose option 3 to fix this issue, and this can also fix other potential issues for PFN walkers, such as compaction.

How severe is CVE-2023-52490?

CVE-2023-52490 has a CVSS score of 5.5/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.28% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2023-52490?

Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.