CVE-2026-90043: zram: fix slot lock bit position on big-endian 64-bit

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 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: 2026-09-16 · updated 2026-10-19

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: zram: fix slot lock bit position on big-endian 64-bit The slot lock is a bit operation on the whole __lock word, which flags and ac_time alias as two u32s. On little-endian the lock bit lands in the position ZRAM_ENTRY_LOCK reserves in flags, so the aliasing works out. On 64-bit big-endian it lands in ac_time instead: with ZRAM_TRACK_ENTRY_ACTIME enabled, storing the access time from mark_slot_accessed() or slot_free() wipes out the held lock bit, letting another CPU take the same slot lock; an access time value with that bit set makes the slot look locked forever. Shift the lock bit into the flags half of the word on big-endian 64-bit.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 7.0 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 7.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-90043 or the next vulnerability affects your stack