Advisory [CVE-2026-53334] handle ctx allocation failure
This security Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53334.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/damon/reclaim: handle ctx allocation failure Patch series "mm/damon/{reclaim,lru_sort}: handle ctx allocation failures". DAMON_RECLAIM and DAMON_LRU_SORT could dereference NULL pointers if their damon_ctx object allocations fail.
The bugs are expected to happen infrequently because the allocations are arguably too small to fail on common setups. But theoretically they are possible and the consequences are bad.
Fix those. The issues were discovered [1] by Sashiko.
This patch (of 2): DAMON_RECLAIM allocates the damon_ctx object for its kdamond in its init function. damon_reclaim_enabled_store() wrongly assumes the allocation will always succeed once tried. If the damon_ctx allocation was failed, therefore, code execution reaches to damon_commit_ctx() while 'ctx' is NULL.
As a result, it dereferences the NULL 'ctx' pointer. Avoid the NULL dereference by returning -ENOMEM if 'ctx' is NULL.
A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's Data Access Monitor (DAMON) reclaim and Least Recently Used (LRU) sort mechanisms. This vulnerability arises from an incorrect assumption that a memory allocation will always succeed.
If the allocation fails, a NULL pointer is dereferenced, which can lead to system instability or a denial of service.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 10 days ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 10 days ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 10 days ago·verify at source
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