CVEvulnerability
CVE-2026-43486
5.5 MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Status
- Analyzed
- Published
- 2026-05-13
- Last modified
- 2026-06-26
- Assigner
- 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
- CVSS 3.1 ([email protected])
- 5.5 MEDIUM — CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-835
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
arm64: contpte: fix set_access_flags() no-op check for SMMU/ATS faults
contpte_ptep_set_access_flags() compared the gathered ptep_get() value
against the requested entry to detect no-ops. ptep_get() ORs AF/dirty
from all sub-PTEs in the CONT block, so a dirty sibling can make the
target appear already-dirty. When the gathered value matches entry, the
function returns 0 even though the target sub-PTE still has PTE_RDONLY
set in hardware.
For a CPU with FEAT_HAFDBS this gathered view is fine, since hardware may
set AF/dirty on any sub-PTE and CPU TLB behavior is effectively gathered
across the CONT range. But page-table walkers that evaluate each
descriptor individually (e.g. a CPU without DBM support, or an SMMU
without HTTU, or with HA/HD disabled in CD.TCR) can keep faulting on the
unchanged target sub-PTE, causing an infinite fault loop.
Gathering can therefore cause false no-ops when only a sibling has been
updated:
- write faults: target still has PTE_RDONLY (needs PTE_RDONLY cleared)
- read faults: target still lacks PTE_AF
Fix by checking each sub-PTE against the requested AF/dirty/write state
(the same bits consumed by __ptep_set_access_flags()), using raw
per-PTE values rather than the gathered ptep_get() view, before
returning no-op. Keep using the raw target PTE for the write-bit unfold
decision.
Per Arm ARM (DDI 0487) D8.7.1 ("The Contiguous bit"), any sub-PTE in a CONT
range may become the effective cached translation and software must
maintain consistent attributes across the range.
Affected configurations
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.9 < 6.12.78)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.13 < 6.18.19)
• linux linux kernel (>= 6.19 < 6.19.9)
• linux linux kernel 7.0
Related
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition weakness
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/05d239f2c95e66e27e7fb4e99ee07eb56e3e34b0 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/09d620555e59768776090073a2c59d2bc8506eb3 Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f92a7a8b48a523f910ef25dd83808710724f59b Patch
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/97c5550b763171dbef61e6239cab372b9f9cd4a2 Patch