CVE-2026-43303
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_alloc: clear page->private in free_pages_prepare() Several subsystems (slub, shmem, ttm, etc.) use page->private but don't clear it before freeing pages.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.17%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_alloc: clear page->private in free_pages_prepare() Several subsystems (slub, shmem, ttm, etc.) use page->private but don't clear it before freeing pages. When these pages are later allocated as high-order pages and split via split_page(), tail pages retain stale page->private values. This causes a use-after-free in the swap subsystem. The swap code uses page->private to track swap count continuations, assuming freshly allocated pages have page->private == 0. When stale values are present, swap_count_continued() incorrectly assumes the continuation list is valid and iterates over uninitialized page->lru containing LIST_POISON values, causing a crash: KASAN: maybe wild-memory-access in range [0xdead000000000100-0xdead000000000107] RIP: 0010:__do_sys_swapoff+0x1151/0x1860 Fix this by clearing page->private in free_pages_prepare(), ensuring all freed pages have clean state regardless of previous use.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 0.17% probability · 6th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-416
- Affected
- linux/linux kernel
- Source
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/23b82b7a26182ad840ae67d390d7ec9771e8c00fPatch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3edb8ebbf79b9016040e8f3421d723ae3d542b32
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ac1ea219590c09572ed5992dc233bbf7bb70fef9Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d757c793853ec5483eb41ec2942c300b8fa720fbPatch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7790ab165713b79b1617ce659742ceb3a859d05
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9719e32a67b4b00b3c9b133e8b5ffa72a26b67b
- https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.