CVE-2026-23177
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm, shmem: prevent infinite loop on truncate race When truncating a large swap entry, shmem_free_swap() returns 0 when the entry's index doesn't match the given index due to lookup alignment. The failure fallback path checks if the entry crosses the end border and aborts when it happens, so truncate won't erase an unexpected entry or range. But one scenario was ignored. When `index` points to the middle of a large swap entry, and the large swap entry doesn't go across the end border, find_get_entries() will return that large swap entry as the first item in the batch with `indices[0]` equal to `index`. The entry's base index will be smaller than `indices[0]`, so shmem_free_swap() will fail and return 0 due to the "base < index" check. The code will then call shmem_confirm_swap(), get the order, check if it crosses the END boundary (which it doesn't), and retry with the same index. The next iteration will find the same entry again at the same index with same indices, leading to an infinite loop. Fix this by retrying with a round-down index, and abort if the index is smaller than the truncate range.
Affected versions
Linux kernel versions
6.12
and later are affected. Fixed in
6.12.70,
6.18.10,
6.19
and their respective stable series.
References
The following references provide additional information about CVE-2026-23177 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2030dddf95451b4e7a389f052091e7c4b7b274c6
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7b6a0f121d50234aab3e7ab9a62ebe826d40a32a
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PatchKernel patch commithttps://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dfc3ab6bd64860f8022d69903be299d09be86e11
Frequently asked questions
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What is CVE-2026-23177?
CVE-2026-23177 is a unscored severity Linux kernel vulnerability . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.12 onward and has been patched in 6.12.70, 6.18.10 and 6.19. CVE-2026-23177 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
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Is there a patch available for CVE-2026-23177?
Yes — CVE-2026-23177 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.12.70, 6.18.10 and 6.19. If you are running Linux kernel 6.12 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.
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Is CVE-2026-23177 actively exploited?
No — CVE-2026-23177 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.