Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2026-43404

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.18.19 / 6.19.9 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: Fix a hmm_range_fault() livelock / starvation problem If hmm_range_fault() fails a folio_trylock() in do_swap_page, trying to acquire the lock of a device-private folio for migration, to ram, the function will spin until it succeeds grabbing the lock. However, if the process holding the lock is depending on a work item to be completed, which is scheduled on the same CPU as the spinning hmm_range_fault(), that work item might be starved and we end up in a livelock / starvation situation which is never resolved. This can happen, for example if the process holding the device-private folio lock is stuck in migrate_device_unmap()->lru_add_drain_all() sinc lru_add_drain_all() requires a short work-item to be run on all online cpus to complete. A prerequisite for this to happen is: a) Both zone device and system memory folios are considered in migrate_device_unmap(), so that there is a reason to call lru_add_drain_all() for a system memory folio while a folio lock is held on a zone device folio. b) The zone device folio has an initial mapcount > 1 which causes at least one migration PTE entry insertion to be deferred to try_to_migrate(), which can happen after the call to lru_add_drain_all(). c) No or voluntary only preemption. This all seems pretty unlikely to happen, but indeed is hit by the "xe_exec_system_allocator" igt test. Resolve this by waiting for the folio to be unlocked if the folio_trylock() fails in do_swap_page(). Rename migration_entry_wait_on_locked() to softleaf_entry_wait_unlock() and update its documentation to indicate the new use-case. Future code improvements might consider moving the lru_add_drain_all() call in migrate_device_unmap() to be called *after* all pages have migration entries inserted. That would eliminate also b) above. v2: - Instead of a cond_resched() in hmm_range_fault(), eliminate the problem by waiting for the folio to be unlocked in do_swap_page() (Alistair Popple, Andrew Morton) v3: - Add a stub migration_entry_wait_on_locked() for the !CONFIG_MIGRATION case. (Kernel Test Robot) v4: - Rename migrate_entry_wait_on_locked() to softleaf_entry_wait_on_locked() and update docs (Alistair Popple) v5: - Add a WARN_ON_ONCE() for the !CONFIG_MIGRATION version of softleaf_entry_wait_on_locked(). - Modify wording around function names in the commit message (Andrew Morton) (cherry picked from commit a69d1ab971a624c6f112cea61536569d579c3215)

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 6.15, < 6.18.19>= 6.19, < 6.19.9= 7.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.18.19 / 6.19.9 or later
Fixed in 6.18.196.19.9
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

6.18.19+ or 6.19.9+ or 7.1+ (depending on which branch you're on)

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. If running kernel version >= 6.15 and < 6.18.19, plan upgrade to kernel version 6.18.19 or later
  3. If running kernel version >= 6.19 and < 6.19.9, plan upgrade to kernel version 6.19.9 or later
  4. If running kernel version = 7.0, plan upgrade to kernel version 7.1 or later
  5. Apply the kernel upgrade through the standard distribution upgrade mechanism (e.g., `apt-get dist-upgrade`, `yum update`, or distribution-specific kernel package manager)
  6. Reboot the system into the new kernel
  7. Verify the kernel version after reboot with `uname -r` to confirm the fix is applied
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks apply - ensure compatibility with custom modules and drivers before deploying in production

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-43404 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-43404 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data