5.5

CVE-2026-64130

mm/page_alloc: fix initialization of tags of the huge zero folio with init_on_free

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/page_alloc: fix initialization of tags of the huge zero folio with init_on_free

__GFP_ZEROTAGS semantics are currently a bit weird, but effectively this
flag is only ever set alongside __GFP_ZERO and __GFP_SKIP_KASAN.

If we run with init_on_free, we will zero out pages during
__free_pages_prepare(), to skip zeroing on the allocation path.

However, when allocating with __GFP_ZEROTAG set, post_alloc_hook() will
consequently not only skip clearing page content, but also skip clearing
tag memory.

Not clearing tags through __GFP_ZEROTAGS is irrelevant for most pages that
will get mapped to user space through set_pte_at() later: set_pte_at() and
friends will detect that the tags have not been initialized yet
(PG_mte_tagged not set), and initialize them.

However, for the huge zero folio, which will be mapped through a PMD
marked as special, this initialization will not be performed, ending up
exposing whatever tags were still set for the pages.

The docs (Documentation/arch/arm64/memory-tagging-extension.rst) state
that allocation tags are set to 0 when a page is first mapped to user
space.  That no longer holds with the huge zero folio when init_on_free is
enabled.

Fix it by decoupling __GFP_ZEROTAGS from __GFP_ZERO, passing to
tag_clear_highpages() whether we want to also clear page content.

Invert the meaning of the tag_clear_highpages() return value to have
clearer semantics.

Reproduced with the huge zero folio by modifying the check_buffer_fill
arm64/mte selftest to use a 2 MiB area, after making sure that pages have
a non-0 tag set when freeing (note that, during boot, we will not actually
initialize tags, but only set KASAN_TAG_KERNEL in the page flags).

	$ ./check_buffer_fill
	1..20
	...
	not ok 17 Check initial tags with private mapping, sync error mode and mmap memory
	not ok 18 Check initial tags with private mapping, sync error mode and mmap/mprotect memory
	...

This code needs more cleanups; we'll tackle that next, like
decoupling __GFP_ZEROTAGS from __GFP_SKIP_KASAN.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: s/__GPF_ZERO/__GFP_ZERO/, per David]
Daten sind bereitgestellt durch National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
LinuxLinux Kernel Version >= 6.18.1 < 6.18.34
LinuxLinux Kernel Version >= 6.19 < 7.0.11
LinuxLinux Kernel Version6.18 Update-
LinuxLinux Kernel Version6.18 Updaterc6
LinuxLinux Kernel Version6.18 Updaterc7
LinuxLinux Kernel Version7.1 Updaterc1
LinuxLinux Kernel Version7.1 Updaterc2
LinuxLinux Kernel Version7.1 Updaterc3
LinuxLinux Kernel Version7.1 Updaterc4
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EPSS Metriken
Typ Quelle Score Percentile
EPSS FIRST.org 0.12% 0.022
CVSS Metriken
Quelle Base Score Exploit Score Impact Score Vector String
NIST 5.5 1.8 3.6
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-908 Use of Uninitialized Resource

The product uses or accesses a resource that has not been initialized.

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/738d18f1da3513d17b6f7bf30146cc4ac2480ffd
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2f2aec5120b93a8f8b52dc50cdc60dbb8aec72f6
Patch
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6a288a4ddb4a994490505ab5f41c445f8e6b6467
Patch