CVE-2026-98918 - In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/ops-common: use a page-aligned address in
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/ops-common: use a page-aligned address in damon_ptep_mkold()
__damon_va_prepare_access_check() picks a random byte address within the
region and stores it in r->sampling_addr. damon_va_mkold() passes it into
a page table walk, which hands it to damon_ptep_mkold() as the address of
the page to sample:
damon_va_mkold(mm, r->sampling_addr)
damon_va_walk_page_range(mm, addr, addr + 1)
damon_mkold_pmd_entry()
damon_ptep_mkold(pte, vma, addr)
ptep_test_and_clear_young(vma, addr, pte)
mmu_notifier_clear_young(mm, addr, addr + PAGE_SIZE)
For arm64, before commit 6f0e1142173a ("arm64: mm: support batch clearing
of the young flag for large folios"), the contpte helper walked exactly
CONT_PTES entries from the aligned-down page table pointer and used @addr
only to pass down to each entry, so an unaligned value was harmless:
ptep = contpte_align_down(ptep);
addr = ALIGN_DOWN(addr, CONT_PTE_SIZE);
for (i = 0; i < CONT_PTES; i++, ptep++, addr += PAGE_SIZE)
Now the range to walk is derived from @addr instead: end = addr + nr *
PAGE_SIZE, rounded up to CONT_PTE_SIZE. For a sample in the last page of
a contpte block, the sub-page offset puts end just past the block
boundary, so the round-up lands a whole block further and the walk clears
PTE_AF in CONT_PTES entries beyond the sampled block. For the last block
in a page table page, those entries are past the end of that page, so the
walk writes into the page that follows.
Triggered by the full 7.1/7.2 kernel selftest suite on arm64 (EC2
c/m6g.4xlarge). The kernel sometimes crashes at or shortly after the
DAMON test.
What the overrun does depends on the page that happens to follow the page
table, so there is no single signature. If that page is read-only, the
write faults in the sampling path itself:
Unable to handle kernel write to read-only memory at virtual address ffff0003c5d2
INFORMATIONAL
Severity & confidence
Source severityinformational
Platform severityinformational
Confidencehigh
Exploitationunknown
CVSS-
Affected
Vendorslinux
Reporting sources (1)
NIST NVD - National Vulnerability Database
Timeline & provenance
Published2026-10-23T13:17:12
Last updated2026-10-26T07:24:54
Ingested2026-10-25T09:22:23
FreshnessNEAR-REAL-TIME
Threat typevulnerability
Recommended action
No recommended action published with this item - review the original source.
Next steps
- Identify affected systems in your environment.
- Apply the vendor patch or mitigation guidance.
- Review logs for indicators described in the advisory.
- Follow the affected vendor/product to track updates.
Confidence explanation
Reported by a government or cert-grade source (CISA, NCSC, NVD, ENISA, MSRC).
Source type: standards ยท Original: NIST NVD - National Vulnerability Database