CVE-2026-93216: mm/page_owner: use memcg_data snapshot to avoid TOCTOU in print_page_owner_memcg()

Severity: unknown
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: 2026-09-24 · updated 2026-10-21

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/page_owner: use memcg_data snapshot to avoid TOCTOU in print_page_owner_memcg() print_page_owner_memcg() reads page->memcg_data via READ_ONCE() at the start to guard against tail pages and NULL data. However, it later re-reads page->memcg_data locklessly in two places: 1: page_memcg_check(page) 2: PageMemcgKmem(page) (via folio_memcg_kmem(), which includes VM_BUG_ON assertions for tail pages and MEMCG_DATA_OBJEXTS) If the page is concurrently freed and reallocated as a THP tail page or slab page between these calls, the VM_BUG_ON assertions can trigger on CONFIG_DEBUG_VM=y builds, crashing the kernel. Fix both TOCTOU issues by using the memcg_data snapshot throughout.

Affected products

Linux kernel: 5.18 — fixed in 7.3

How to fix

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

References

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