Medium [CVE-2026-72292] Initialize KVM_S390_GET_CMMA_BITS memory
This medium-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72292 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: KVM: s390: Initialize KVM_S390_GET_CMMA_BITS memory kvm_s390_get_cmma_bits() allocates its output buffer with vmalloc(), which does not zero the returned pages: values = vmalloc(args->count); In the non-peek (migration) path, dat_get_cmma() reports a byte count spanning from the first to the last dirty page, but __dat_get_cmma_pte() writes values[gfn - start] only for pages whose CMMA dirty bit is set.
The walk uses DAT_WALK_IGN_HOLES, so clean and unmapped pages that lie between two dirty pages within the reported span are visited but never store their byte. Those gaps (up to KVM_S390_MAX_BIT_DISTANCE pages each) stay uninitialized yet fall inside [0, count) and are copied out by copy_to_user(), disclosing stale kernel memory to user space.
Before the switch to the new gmap implementation the buffer was fully populated for every gfn in the span, so no uninitialized bytes were exposed; the dirty-only walk introduced the leak. Use vzalloc() so the gaps read back as zero.
A local user could exploit a vulnerability in the KVM_S390_GET_CMMA_BITS ioctl, specifically within the `kvm_s390_get_cmma_bits()` function. This function allocates memory without properly initializing all pages, leading to uninitialized memory regions.
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 25 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 25 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 25 days ago·verify at source
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