CVE-2026-53265: dm cache policy smq: check allocation under invalidate lock

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-25 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-362

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm cache policy smq: check allocation under invalidate lock commit 2d1f7b65f5de ("dm cache policy smq: fix missing locks in invalidating cache blocks") added mq->lock around the destructive part of smq_invalidate_mapping(), but left the e->allocated check outside the critical section. That leaves a check-then-act race. Two concurrent invalidators can both observe e->allocated as true before either of them takes mq->lock. The first invalidator that acquires the lock removes the entry from the queues and hash table and then calls free_entry(), which clears e->allocated and puts the entry back on the free list. The second invalidator can then acquire mq->lock and continue with the stale result of the unlocked check. This can corrupt the SMQ queues or hash table by deleting an entry that is no longer on those structures. It can also hit the allocation check in free_entry() when the same entry is freed again. Move the allocation check under mq->lock so the predicate and the destructive operations are serialized by the same lock.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.6.141 before 6.6.143; from 6.12.91 before 6.12.94; from 6.18.33 before 6.18.36; from 7.0.10 before 7.0.13; 5.10.258, 5.15.209, 6.1.175, 7.1-rc1, 7.1-rc2, 7.1-rc3 (+3) — fixed in 6.12.94, 6.18.36, 6.6.143, 7.0.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.94, 6.18.36, 6.6.143, 7.0.13. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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