published September 17, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
x86/mm/pat: Take cpa_lock around large-page collapse
Loading and unloading modules concurrently on several CPUs on a KASAN
build, with a short delay injected at the CPA page-table lookup to
widen the window, faults within minutes:
BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in __change_page_attr+0x7cc/0x7e0
Write of size 8 at addr ffff888181139718 by task modprobe
...
The buggy address belongs to the physical page:
pfn:0x181139 ... page_type: f2(table)
cpa_collapse_large_pages() rebuilds a leaf PMD from its 4K PTEs and
frees the old PTE-table pages, while __change_page_attr() fetches a
PTE pointer from a lockless lookup_address_in_pgd_attr() and writes
it with set_pte_atomic() only later. When module text is served from
a shared large ROX mapping the two run on the same PMD:
CPU A (module load) CPU B (module finalize)
------------------- -----------------------
execmem_make_temp_rw
set_memory_nx
__change_page_attr
split 2M -> 4K table P
kpte = &P[i] (lockless)
execmem_restore_rox
set_memory_rox (CPA_COLLAPSE)
cpa_collapse_large_pages
rebuild leaf PMD
flush_tlb_all
pagetable_free(P)
set_pte_atomic(kpte, ...)
-> writes into freed P
P is a page-table page (page_type: table), reused at once, so the
write corrupts whatever got the page next: a bad-pte or bad-page
splat, or a fatal fault once P has been turned into read-only text.
The flush_tlb_all() before the free does not close this: its IPI only
serializes against page-table walkers that run with interrupts off
(e.g. GUP-fast); the walk in __change_page_attr() runs with interrupts
on, so nothing stops it from holding a stale pointer into P.
Serialize the collapse - the PMD rebuild, TLB flush and PTE-table
free - under cpa_lock, the same lock __change_page_attr() now takes
unconditionally since commit ("x86/mm/pat: stop gating cpa_lock on
debug_pagealloc_enabled()"), so a concurrent walker can no longer
hold a pointer into a table the collapse is about to free.