KernelScan.io

HIGH Introduced in 4.0

arm ShowPte UAF

CVE-2026-90303

CVSS 7.0 / 10.0 KernelScan AI

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

01

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ARM: 9485/1: mm: acquire mmap write lock around show_pte() for user faults When CONFIG_DEBUG_USER=y, and cmdline "user_debug=31" is set, a user fault may trigger show_pte() without any lock. If another thread in the same process concurrently calls munmap(), the page table pages may be freed while show_pte() is still traversing them, causing a use-after-free in show_pte(). If CONFIG_ARM_LPAE=y, this may cause a kernel panic if the pages table of PMD are freed when show_pte() is running. Acquire mmap_write_lock() around show_pte() for user faults to fix the contention. For user faults, additionally restrict that show_pte() is called only when the addr is a user-space address (addr < TASK_SIZE). This is because the lock of tsk->mm only protects the virtual memory of user address space, furthermore, dumping the page tables of a kernel-space address for user faults is unnecessary and may have security implications. Keep everything unchanged for kernel faults, because the kernel is already in the "oops" state, acquiring a lock may risk a deadlock.

02

Engine v0.6.0

Risk summary

On 32-bit ARM systems compiled with CONFIG_DEBUG_USER and booted with user_debug=31, a local unprivileged user can race a concurrent munmap against the kernel's page-table diagnostic dump triggered by a user fault, causing a use-after-free on freed page table pages. This can crash the kernel and potentially corrupt memory. The vulnerability is gated behind a non-default debug configuration, limiting exposure to development or debug-enabled deployments.

Affectedarch/arm/mm/fault.c (ARM memory management)

Vulnerability analysis

When ARM user-fault debug reporting is enabled via a specific kernel command-line option, the kernel dumps page table entries on unhandled user-space faults without holding the necessary lock. If another thread in the same process concurrently unmaps memory, the page table pages being traversed can be freed mid-walk, causing a use-after-free. The fix acquires the proper lock before dumping page tables for user faults and restricts the dump to user-space addresses only, since that lock protects only user virtual memory and dumping kernel-space page tables from a user fault context is unnecessary. Any local unprivileged user on an ARM system with this debug configuration enabled can trigger the race by running a multithreaded process that faults in one thread while unmapping in another.

03

BranchIntroducedFixed inPatch commit
5.104.05.10.270ab14f07952ad
5.154.05.15.22107e4d5380f2a
6.14.06.1.1882a14d7797a49
6.124.06.12.11059bbf86d0ff9
6.184.06.18.52c71f9a56520b
6.64.06.6.15763e3c958a602
7.24.07.2.6720408d98d9f
mainline4.07.31039bffd6ae9
cip/5.104.05.10.271-cip78ab14f07952ad
cip/6.14.06.1.189-cip612a14d7797a49
cip/6.1-rt4.06.1.189-cip61-rt322a14d7797a49
cip/6.124.06.12.111-cip3259bbf86d0ff9

04

State of the newest release of each Civil Infrastructure Platform SLTS tree, from CIP's own fix records.

CIP treeState
cip/6.12Fixed in 6.12.111-cip32
cip/6.1Fixed in 6.1.189-cip61
cip/6.1-rtFixed in 6.1.189-cip61-rt32
cip/5.10Fixed in 5.10.271-cip78
cip/5.10-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 5.10.268-cip77-rt34)
cip/4.19Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.19.325-cip136)
cip/4.19-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.19.325-cip136-rt50)
cip/4.4Affected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.4.302-cip115)
cip/4.4-rtAffected — no CIP fix yet (latest 4.4.302-cip115-rt63)