# CVE-2026-23345: arm64: gcs: Do not set PTE_SHARED on GCS mappings if FEAT_LPA2 is enabled

> A kernel panic occurs when enabling GCS on ARM64 systems with LPA2 due to incorrect PTE shareability bits, 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:** 25 Mar 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-23345, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23345, GHSA-67rr-wm48-f5vp, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23345

## What is CVE-2026-23345?

CVE-2026-23345 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Mar 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:

arm64: gcs: Do not set PTE_SHARED on GCS mappings if FEAT_LPA2 is enabled

When FEAT_LPA2 is enabled, bits 8-9 of the PTE replace the
shareability attribute with bits 50-51 of the output address. The
_PAGE_GCS{,_RO} definitions include the PTE_SHARED bits as 0b11 (this
matches the other _PAGE_* definitions) but using this macro directly
leads to the following panic when enabling GCS on a system/model with
LPA2:

  Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address fffff1ffc32d8008
  Mem abort info:
    ESR = 0x0000000096000004
    EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits
    SET = 0, FnV = 0
    EA = 0, S1PTW = 0
    FSC = 0x04: level 0 translation fault
  Data abort info:
    ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000004, ISS2 = 0x00000000
    CM = 0, WnR = 0, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0
    GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0
  swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 52-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000060f4d000
  [fffff1ffc32d8008] pgd=100000006184b003, p4d=0000000000000000
  Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000004 [#1]  SMP
  CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 513 Comm: gcs_write_fault Tainted: G   M                7.0.0-rc1 #1 PREEMPT
  Tainted: [M]=MACHINE_CHECK
  Hardware name: QEMU QEMU Virtual Machine, BIOS 2025.02-8+deb13u1 11/08/2025
  pstate: 03402005 (nzcv daif +PAN -UAO +TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
  pc : zap_huge_pmd+0x168/0x468
  lr : zap_huge_pmd+0x2c/0x468
  sp : ffff800080beb660
  x29: ffff800080beb660 x28: fff00000c2058180 x27: ffff800080beb898
  x26: fff00000c2058180 x25: ffff800080beb820 x24: 00c800010b600f41
  x23: ffffc1ffc30af1a8 x22: fff00000c2058180 x21: 0000ffff8dc00000
  x20: fff00000c2bc6370 x19: ffff800080beb898 x18: ffff800080bebb60
  x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000007
  x14: 000000000000000a x13: 0000aaaacbbbffff x12: 0000000000000000
  x11: 0000ffff8ddfffff x10: 00000000000001fe x9 : 0000ffff8ddfffff
  x8 : 0000ffff8de00000 x7 : 0000ffff8da00000 x6 : fff00000c2bc6370
  x5 : 0000ffff8da00000 x4 : 000000010b600000 x3 : ffffc1ffc0000000
  x2 : fff00000c2058180 x1 : fffff1ffc32d8000 x0 : 000000c00010b600
  Call trace:
   zap_huge_pmd+0x168/0x468 (P)
   unmap_page_range+0xd70/0x1560
   unmap_single_vma+0x48/0x80
   unmap_vmas+0x90/0x180
   unmap_region+0x88/0xe4
   vms_complete_munmap_vmas+0xf8/0x1e0
   do_vmi_align_munmap+0x158/0x180
   do_vmi_munmap+0xac/0x160
   __vm_munmap+0xb0/0x138
   vm_munmap+0x14/0x20
   gcs_free+0x70/0x80
   mm_release+0x1c/0xc8
   exit_mm_release+0x28/0x38
   do_exit+0x190/0x8ec
   do_group_exit+0x34/0x90
   get_signal+0x794/0x858
   arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x11c/0x3e0
   exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x10c/0x17c
   el0_da+0x8c/0x9c
   el0t_64_sync_handler+0xd0/0xf0
   el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c
  Code: aa1603e2 d34cfc00 cb813001 8b011861 (f9400420)

Similarly to how the kernel handles protection_map[], use a
gcs_page_prot variable to store the protection bits and clear PTE_SHARED
if LPA2 is enabled.

Also remove the unused PAGE_GCS{,_RO} macros.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23345?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23345?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23345 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23345 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-2026-23345 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23345 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Mar 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-2026-23345 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-2026-23345/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23345/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23345
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23345
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23345

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23345/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.