CVE-2024-56612: mm/gup: handle NULL pages in unpin_user_pages()

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-12-27 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/gup: handle NULL pages in unpin_user_pages() The recent addition of "pofs" (pages or folios) handling to gup has a flaw: it assumes that unpin_user_pages() handles NULL pages in the pages** array. That's not the case, as I discovered when I ran on a new configuration on my test machine. Fix this by skipping NULL pages in unpin_user_pages(), just like unpin_folios() already does. Details: when booting on x86 with "numa=fake=2 movablecore=4G" on Linux 6.12, and running this: tools/testing/selftests/mm/gup_longterm ...I get the following crash: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 RIP: 0010:sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x3a/0x2d0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body+0x66/0xb0 ? page_fault_oops+0x30c/0x3b0 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x6c3/0x720 ? irqentry_enter+0x34/0x60 ? exc_page_fault+0x68/0x100 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x3a/0x2d0 unpin_user_pages+0x24/0xe0 check_and_migrate_movable_pages_or_folios+0x455/0x4b0 __gup_longterm_locked+0x3bf/0x820 ? mmap_read_lock_killable+0x12/0x50 ? __pfx_mmap_read_lock_killable+0x10/0x10 pin_user_pages+0x66/0xa0 gup_test_ioctl+0x358/0xb20 __se_sys_ioctl+0x6b/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x7b/0x150 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.12 before 6.12.5; 6.13-rc1 — fixed in 6.12.5

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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