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Advisory severityHigh7.0Red Hat Linux

High [CVE-2026-63950] initialize nr_pages to 1 at loop start in try_to_unmap_one

This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-63950 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat package: kernel.

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CVE-2026-63950 Source published Source updated

VulniPulse record published Record updated

CVE-2026-63950
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxLinux Kernel
Open source advisory

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Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/rmap: initialize nr_pages to 1 at loop start in try_to_unmap_one Initialize nr_pages to 1 at the start of each loop iteration, like folio_referenced_one() does.

Without this, nr_pages computed by a previous folio_unmap_pte_batch() call can be reused on a later iteration that does not run folio_unmap_pte_batch() again. mmap a 64K large folio with MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_DROPPABLE, then call madvise(MADV_FREE), then make the last page device-exclusive via HMM_DMIRROR_EXCLUSIVE. Trigger node reclaim through sysfs.

Now, in try_to_unmap_one(), we will first clear the first 15 out of 16 entries mapping the lazyfree folio. This will set nr_pages to 15.

In the next pvmw walk, this nr_pages gets reused on a device-exclusive pte, thus potentially corrupting folio refcount/mapcount.

At the moment, I have a userspace program which can make the kernel spit out a trace, but the blow up is in folio_referenced_one(), because there are existing bugs in the interaction between device-private and rmap (which too I am investigating).

I did a one liner kernel change to avoid going into folio_referenced_one(), and the kernel blows up at folio_remove_rmap_ptes in try_to_unmap_one which is what I wanted.

Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat package: kernel.

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 7 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 7 days ago·verify at source

Mitigation

The source record does not include mitigation steps. That does not mean no fix exists. Read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.

Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 7 days ago·verify at source

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