Medium [CVE-2026-72173] do not warn on seeing non-migration pmd entry
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72173 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat package: kernel.
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Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/proc/task_mmu: do not warn on seeing non-migration pmd entry Patch series "mm/hmm: A fix and a selftest", v3. Patch 1 fixes a stale warning present from the time when only migration softleaf entries were supported at the PMD level.
Patch 2 adds some code into hmm-tests.c which exercises the pagemap path for PMD device-private entries. This became false once device-private entries at the PMD level were added.
Therefore, remove the stale migration-only assertion. A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's memory management unit (MMU).
The `pagemap_pmd_range_thp()` function incorrectly issued a warning when encountering certain non-present Page Middle Directory (PMD) entries. This issue arose because an assertion related to migration-only softleaf entries became outdated after the introduction of device-private PMD entries.
While not directly exploitable for arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation, this flaw could lead to misleading diagnostic information within the kernel. Red Hat severity: Low — CVSS 5.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-617. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
Will not fix / out of support: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
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 24 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 24 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 24 days ago·verify at source
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