published October 6, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/dax: check zero or empty entry before converting xarray entry
Calling dax_to_folio() with empty entry causes kernel panic below when
booting a VM with DAX enabled storage.
This patch checks empty entry before calling dax_to_folio() on
dax_associate_entry(), dax_disassociate_entry(), and dax_busy_page().
Commit 98c183a4fccf ("fs/dax: don't disassociate zero page entries") added
guards in the associate and disassociate paths, but the guards still come
after dax_to_folio(), and dax_busy_page() still has the same problem.
[ 0.737679] EXT4-fs (pmem0p1): mounted filesystem 79676804-7c8b-491a-b2a6-9bae3c72af70 ro with ordered data mode. Quota mode: disabled.
[ 0.737891] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 259:1.
[ 0.739119] devtmpfs: mounted
[ 0.739476] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1920K
[ 0.740156] Run /sbin/init as init process
[ 0.740229] with arguments:
[ 0.740286] /sbin/init
[ 0.740321] with environment:
[ 0.740369] HOME=/
[ 0.740400] TERM=linux
[ 0.743162] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address fffffdffbf000008
[ 0.743285] Mem abort info:
[ 0.743316] ESR = 0x0000000096000006
[ 0.743371] EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits
[ 0.743444] SET = 0, FnV = 0
[ 0.743489] EA = 0, S1PTW = 0
[ 0.743545] FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault
[ 0.743610] Data abort info:
[ 0.743656] ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006, ISS2 = 0x00000000
[ 0.743720] CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0
[ 0.743785] GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0
[ 0.743848] swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=00000000b9d17000
[ 0.743931] [fffffdffbf000008] pgd=10000000bfa3d403, p4d=10000000bfa3d403, pud=1000000040bfe403, pmd=0000000000000000
[ 0.744070] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000006 [#1] SMP
[ 0.748888] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: init Not tainted 6.18.4 #1 NONE
[ 0.749421] pstate: 004000c5 (nzcv daIF +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[ 0.749969] pc : dax_disassociate_entry.constprop.0+0x20/0x50
[ 0.750444] lr : dax_insert_entry+0xcc/0x408
[ 0.750802] sp : ffff80008000b9e0
[ 0.751083] x29: ffff80008000b9e0 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000
[ 0.751682] x26: 0000000001963d01 x25: ffff0000004f7d90 x24: 0000000000000000
[ 0.752264] x23: 0000000000000000 x22: ffff80008000bcc8 x21: 0000000000000011
[ 0.752836] x20: ffff80008000ba90 x19: 0000000001963d01 x18: 0000000000000000
[ 0.753407] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000
[ 0.753970] x14: ffffbf3154b9ae70 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: ffffbf3154b9ae70
[ 0.754548] x11: ffffffffffffffff x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000
[ 0.755122] x8 : 000000000000000d x7 : 000000000000001f x6 : 0000000000000000
[ 0.755707] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : fffffdffc0000000
[ 0.756287] x2 : 0000000000000008 x1 : 0000000040000000 x0 : fffffdffbf000000
[ 0.756871] Call trace:
[ 0.757107] dax_disassociate_entry.constprop.0+0x20/0x50 (P)
[ 0.757592] dax_iomap_pte_fault+0x4fc/0x808
[ 0.757951] dax_iomap_fault+0x28/0x30
[ 0.758258] ext4_dax_huge_fault+0x80/0x2dc
[ 0.758594] ext4_dax_fault+0x10/0x3c
[ 0.758892] __do_fault+0x38/0x12c
[ 0.759175] __handle_mm_fault+0x530/0xcf0
[ 0.759518] handle_mm_fault+0xe4/0x230
[ 0.759833] do_page_fault+0x17c/0x4dc
[ 0.760144] do_translation_fault+0x30/0x38
[ 0.760483] do_mem_abort+0x40/0x8c
[ 0.760771] el0_ia+0x4c/0x170
[ 0.761032] el0t_64_sync_handler+0xd8/0xdc
[ 0.761371] el0t_64_sync+0x168/0x16c
[ 0.761677] Code: f9453021 f2dfbfe3 cb813080 8b001860 (f9400401)
[ 0.762168] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
[ 0.762550] note: init[1] exited with irqs disabled
[ 0.762631] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x0000000b