CVE-2026-23100
MediumIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb_pmd_shared() Patch series "mm/hugetlb: fixes for PMD table sharing (incl. using mmu_gather)", v3. One functional fix, one performance regression fix, and two related comment fixes. I cleaned up my prototype I recently shared [1] for the performance fix, deferring most of the cleanups I had in the prototype to a later point. While doing that I identified the other things. The goal of this patch set is to be backported to stable trees "fairly" easily. At least patch #1 and #4. Patch #1 fixes hugetlb_pmd_shared() not detecting any sharing Patch #2 + #3 are simple comment fixes that patch #4 interacts with. Patch #4 is a fix for the reported performance regression due to excessive IPI broadcasts during fork()+exit(). The last patch is all about TLB flushes, IPIs and mmu_gather. Read: complicated There are plenty of cleanups in the future to be had + one reasonable optimization on x86. But that's all out of scope for this series. Runtime tested, with a focus on fixing the performance regression using the original reproducer [2] on x86. This patch (of 4): We switched from (wrongly) using the page count to an independent shared count. Now, shared page tables have a refcount of 1 (excluding speculative references) and instead use ptdesc->pt_share_count to identify sharing. We didn't convert hugetlb_pmd_shared(), so right now, we would never detect a shared PMD table as such, because sharing/unsharing no longer touches the refcount of a PMD table. Page migration, like mbind() or migrate_pages() would allow for migrating folios mapped into such shared PMD tables, even though the folios are not exclusive. In smaps we would account them as "private" although they are "shared", and we would be wrongly setting the PM_MMAP_EXCLUSIVE in the pagemap interface. Fix it by properly using ptdesc_pmd_is_shared() in hugetlb_pmd_shared().
CVSS 3.1 score
5.5
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
5.10.239,
5.15.186,
6.1.142,
6.6.72,
6.12.9,
6.13
and later are affected. Fixed in
5.10.253,
5.15.203,
6.1.167,
6.6.127,
6.12.74,
6.18.8,
6.19
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-23100 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
-
PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3a18b452dd5f7f1652c2e92f8ae769aa17a66c9e
-
PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/51dcf459845fd28f5a0d83d408a379b274ec5cc5
-
PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5b2aec77f92265a9028c5f632bdd9af5b57ec3a3
Frequently asked questions
-
What is CVE-2026-23100?
CVE-2026-23100 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 5.10.239 onward and has been patched in 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167 and others. CVE-2026-23100 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
-
What is the CVSS score for CVE-2026-23100?
CVE-2026-23100 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H. -
Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-23100?
Yes — CVE-2026-23100 has been patched. Fixed versions include 5.10.253, 5.15.203, 6.1.167 and others. If you are running Linux kernel 5.10.239 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
-
Is CVE-2026-23100 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-23100 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.