Linux Kernel up to 6.19.12 vma __mmap_region memory leak

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.12. It has been classified as critical. The impacted element is the function __mmap_region of the component vma. The manipulation leads to memory leak. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-31654. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.19.12. This issue affects the function __mmap_region of the component vma. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a memory leak vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-401. The product does not sufficiently track and release allocated memory after it has been used, which slowly consumes remaining memory. Impacted is availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/vma: fix memory leak in __mmap_region() commit 605f6586ecf7 ("mm/vma: do not leak memory when .mmap_prepare swaps the file") handled the success path by skipping get_file() via file_doesnt_need_get, but missed the error path. When /dev/zero is mmap'd with MAP_SHARED, mmap_zero_prepare() calls shmem_zero_setup_desc() which allocates a new shmem file to back the mapping. If __mmap_new_vma() subsequently fails, this replacement file is never fput()'d - the original is released by ksys_mmap_pgoff(), but nobody releases the new one. Add fput() for the swapped file in the error path. Reproducible with fault injection. FAULT_INJECTION: forcing a failure. name failslab, interval 1, probability 0, space 0, times 1 CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 366 Comm: syz.7.14 Not tainted 7.0.0-rc6 #2 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x164/0x1f0 should_fail_ex+0x525/0x650 should_failslab+0xdf/0x140 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x78/0x630 vm_area_alloc+0x24/0x160 __mmap_region+0xf6b/0x2660 mmap_region+0x2eb/0x3a0 do_mmap+0xc79/0x1240 vm_mmap_pgoff+0x252/0x4c0 ksys_mmap_pgoff+0xf8/0x120 __x64_sys_mmap+0x12a/0x190 do_syscall_64+0xa9/0x580 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e kmemleak: 1 new suspected memory leaks (see /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak) BUG: memory leak unreferenced object 0xffff8881118aca80 (size 360): comm "syz.7.14", pid 366, jiffies 4294913255 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 00 00 00 ad 4e ad de ff ff ff ff 00 00 00 00 .....N.......... ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff c0 28 4d ae ff ff ff ff .........(M..... backtrace (crc db0f53bc): kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x3ab/0x630 alloc_empty_file+0x5a/0x1e0 alloc_file_pseudo+0x135/0x220 __shmem_file_setup+0x274/0x420 shmem_zero_setup_desc+0x9c/0x170 mmap_zero_prepare+0x123/0x140 __mmap_region+0xdda/0x2660 mmap_region+0x2eb/0x3a0 do_mmap+0xc79/0x1240 vm_mmap_pgoff+0x252/0x4c0 ksys_mmap_pgoff+0xf8/0x120 __x64_sys_mmap+0x12a/0x190 do_syscall_64+0xa9/0x580 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Found by syzkaller.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-31654 since 03/09/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 311018 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-31654), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.19.13 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 61fc8eaf2ab214b32c7bce52597c80cf0ca41ada/894f99eb535edc4514f756818f3c4f688ba53a59 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (311018) and EUVD (EUVD-2026-25547). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 6.19.10
• 6.19.11
• 6.19.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Discussion