# CVE-2026-23211: mm, swap: restore swap_space attr aviod kernel panic

> A kernel panic occurs in the Linux kernel's swap subsystem under heavy memory pressure, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 18 Feb 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23211, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23211, GHSA-m8v3-m8mg-rrc7, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23211

## What is CVE-2026-23211?

CVE-2026-23211 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Feb 2026. 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: restore swap_space attr aviod kernel panic

commit 8b47299a411a ("mm, swap: mark swap address space ro and add context
debug check") made the swap address space read-only.  It may lead to
kernel panic if arch_prepare_to_swap returns a failure under heavy memory
pressure as follows,

el1_abort+0x40/0x64
el1h_64_sync_handler+0x48/0xcc
el1h_64_sync+0x84/0x88
errseq_set+0x4c/0xb8 (P)
__filemap_set_wb_err+0x20/0xd0
shrink_folio_list+0xc20/0x11cc
evict_folios+0x1520/0x1be4
try_to_shrink_lruvec+0x27c/0x3dc
shrink_one+0x9c/0x228
shrink_node+0xb3c/0xeac
do_try_to_free_pages+0x170/0x4f0
try_to_free_pages+0x334/0x534
__alloc_pages_direct_reclaim+0x90/0x158
__alloc_pages_slowpath+0x334/0x588
__alloc_frozen_pages_noprof+0x224/0x2fc
__folio_alloc_noprof+0x14/0x64
vma_alloc_zeroed_movable_folio+0x34/0x44
do_pte_missing+0xad4/0x1040
handle_mm_fault+0x4a4/0x790
do_page_fault+0x288/0x5f8
do_translation_fault+0x38/0x54
do_mem_abort+0x54/0xa8

Restore swap address space as not ro to avoid the panic.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23211?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23211?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23211 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23211 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-2026-23211 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23211 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Feb 2026. 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-2026-23211 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-2026-23211/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23211/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23211
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23211
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23211

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23211/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.