Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3 Shrinker mm/shrinker.c set_shrinker_bit out-of-bounds

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3 and classified as critical. This affects the function set_shrinker_bit of the file mm/shrinker.c of the component Shrinker. Such manipulation leads to out-of-bounds. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-98225. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 7.2.7/7.3-rc3. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is the function set_shrinker_bit of the file mm/shrinker.c of the component Shrinker. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a out-of-bounds vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-125. The product reads data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/shrinker: fix bogus set_shrinker_bit() with cgroup.memory=nokmem With cgroup.memory=nokmem, shrinker_memcg_alloc() bails out early and never allocates an id, so shrinker->id keeps the 0 it got from the kzalloc() in shrinker_alloc(). __list_lru_init() then copies that 0 into lru->shrinker_id, where it looks like a valid bit index. Nothing calls expand_shrinker_info() on nokmem either, so shrinker_nr_max stays 0 and every memcg ends up with an empty map (map_nr_max == 0). deferred_split_folio() hands a real memcg to __list_lru_add() regardless of whether the lru is memcg aware, so the first THP queued in a cgroup does set_shrinker_bit(memcg, nid, 0) and trips the bounds check: WARNING: mm/shrinker.c:212 at set_shrinker_bit+0x7d/0x90, CPU#126 Call Trace: <TASK> deferred_split_folio+0x18c/0x220 map_anon_folio_pmd_nopf+0xdd/0x130 map_anon_folio_pmd_pf+0x14/0xb0 do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page+0x1a1/0x620 __handle_mm_fault+0xea9/0x10d0 handle_mm_fault+0xe5/0x320 do_user_addr_fault+0x1cc/0x870 exc_page_fault+0x81/0x1b0 asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30 </TASK> Harmless, the WARN_ON_ONCE() is what keeps the out of bounds unit[] read from happening, but the id should not look valid in the first place. Clear it before returning. Two other spots could paper over this: drop the id in __list_lru_init() when nokmem turns memcg_aware off, or make deferred_split_folio() pass NULL like list_lru_add_obj() does. Both leave shrinker->id lying around for the next caller, so fix it where the id is handed out.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-98225 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/06/2026).

Upgrading to version 7.2.8 or 7.3-rc4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 469c12a69ab1842a9090b6c074ffedbfd9584f9c/932cfb25e7ce98d1f93895671ec186a3087e4f80 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.3-rc1
• 7.3-rc2
• 7.3-rc3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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