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4Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: thp: deny THP for files on anonymous inodes file_thp_enabled() incorrectly allows THP for files on anonymous inodes (e.g. guest_memfd and secretmem). These files are created via alloc_file_pseudo(), which does not call get_write_access() and leaves inode->i_writecount at 0. Combined with S_ISREG(inode->i_mode) being true, they appear as read-only regular files when CONFIG_READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS is enabled, making them eligible for THP collapse. Anonymous inodes can never pass the inode_is_open_for_write() check since their i_writecount is never incremented through the normal VFS open path. The right thing to do is to exclude them from THP eligibility altogether, since CONFIG_READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS was designed for real filesystem files (e.g. shared libraries), not for pseudo-filesystem inodes. For guest_memfd, this allows khugepaged and MADV_COLLAPSE to create large folios in the page cache via the collapse path, but the guest_memfd fault handler does not support large folios. This triggers WARN_ON_ONCE(folio_test_large(folio)) in kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping(). For secretmem, collapse_file() tries to copy page contents through the direct map, but secretmem pages are removed from the direct map. This can result in a kernel crash: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffff88810284d000 RIP: 0010:memcpy_orig+0x16/0x130 Call Trace: collapse_file hpage_collapse_scan_file madvise_collapse Secretmem is not affected by the crash on upstream as the memory failure recovery handles the failed copy gracefully, but it still triggers confusing false memory failure reports: Memory failure: 0x106d96f: recovery action for clean unevictable LRU page: Recovered Check IS_ANON_FILE(inode) in file_thp_enabled() to deny THP for all anonymous inode files.
Analysis
A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's Transparent Huge Pages (THP) subsystem incorrectly enables THP for files on anonymous inodes (such as guest_memfd and secretmem), which were not designed to support large folios. This can trigger kernel crashes via memory copy operations on unmapped memory in secretmem, or WARN_ON conditions in guest_memfd fault handlers. …
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Priority Score
Vendor Status
Debian
| Release | Status | Fixed Version | Urgency |
|---|---|---|---|
| bullseye | not-affected | - | - |
| bullseye (security) | fixed | 5.10.251-1 | - |
| bookworm | not-affected | - | - |
| bookworm (security) | fixed | 6.1.164-1 | - |
| trixie | vulnerable | 6.12.73-1 | - |
| trixie (security) | vulnerable | 6.12.74-2 | - |
| forky, sid | fixed | 6.19.8-1 | - |
| (unstable) | fixed | 6.19.8-1 | - |
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-15365
GHSA-9ghh-p583-m6m8