# CVE-2024-26759: mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache

> A race condition in the Linux kernel swap subsystem allows concurrent threads to cause data corruption by installing stale pages into page table entries.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 3 Apr 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-58780, BELL-CVE-2024-26759, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26759, GHSA-p22p-8399-qrmf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-26759, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-26759, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26759

## What is CVE-2024-26759?

CVE-2024-26759 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/swap: fix race when skipping swapcache

When skipping swapcache for SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO, if two or more threads
swapin the same entry at the same time, they get different pages (A, B). 
Before one thread (T0) finishes the swapin and installs page (A) to the
PTE, another thread (T1) could finish swapin of page (B), swap_free the
entry, then swap out the possibly modified page reusing the same entry. 
It breaks the pte_same check in (T0) because PTE value is unchanged,
causing ABA problem.  Thread (T0) will install a stalled page (A) into the
PTE and cause data corruption.

One possible callstack is like this:

CPU0                                 CPU1
----                                 ----
do_swap_page()                       do_swap_page() with same entry
<direct swapin path>                 <direct swapin path>
<alloc page A>                       <alloc page B>
swap_read_folio() <- read to page A  swap_read_folio() <- read to page B
<slow on later locks or interrupt>   <finished swapin first>
...                                  set_pte_at()
                                     swap_free() <- entry is free
                                     <write to page B, now page A stalled>
                                     <swap out page B to same swap entry>
pte_same() <- Check pass, PTE seems
              unchanged, but page A
              is stalled!
swap_free() <- page B content lost!
set_pte_at() <- staled page A installed!

And besides, for ZRAM, swap_free() allows the swap device to discard the
entry content, so even if page (B) is not modified, if swap_read_folio()
on CPU0 happens later than swap_free() on CPU1, it may also cause data
loss.

To fix this, reuse swapcache_prepare which will pin the swap entry using
the cache flag, and allow only one thread to swap it in, also prevent any
parallel code from putting the entry in the cache.  Release the pin after
PT unlocked.

Racers just loop and wait since it's a rare and very short event.  A
schedule_timeout_uninterruptible(1) call is added to avoid repeated page
faults wasting too much CPU, causing livelock or adding too much noise to
perf statistics.  A similar livelock issue was described in commit
029c4628b2eb ("mm: swap: get rid of livelock in swapin readahead")

Reproducer:

This race issue can be triggered easily using a well constructed
reproducer and patched brd (with a delay in read path) [1]:

With latest 6.8 mainline, race caused data loss can be observed easily:
$ gcc -g -lpthread test-thread-swap-race.c && ./a.out
  Polulating 32MB of memory region...
  Keep swapping out...
  Starting round 0...
  Spawning 65536 workers...
  32746 workers spawned, wait for done...
  Round 0: Error on 0x5aa00, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
  Round 0: Error on 0x395200, expected 32746, got 32743, 3 data loss!
  Round 0: Error on 0x3fd000, expected 32746, got 32737, 9 data loss!
  Round 0 Failed, 15 data loss!

This reproducer spawns multiple threads sharing the same memory region
using a small swap device.  Every two threads updates mapped pages one by
one in opposite direction trying to create a race, with one dedicated
thread keep swapping out the data out using madvise.

The reproducer created a reproduce rate of about once every 5 minutes, so
the race should be totally possible in production.

After this patch, I ran the reproducer for over a few hundred rounds and
no data loss observed.

Performance overhead is minimal, microbenchmark swapin 10G from 32G
zram:

Before:     10934698 us
After:      11157121 us
Cached:     13155355 us (Dropping SWP_SYNCHRONOUS_IO flag)

[kasong@tencent.com: v4]

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26759?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26759?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26759 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26759 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-26759 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26759 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 3 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26759 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26759/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26759/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26759
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26759
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26759

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26759/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.