# CVE-2026-23375: mm: thp: deny THP for files on anonymous inodes

> A flaw in the Linux kernel allows Transparent Huge Pages on anonymous inodes, potentially causing a kernel crash or 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-2026-23375, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-23375, GHSA-9ghh-p583-m6m8, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-23375, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-23375, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-23375

## What is CVE-2026-23375?

CVE-2026-23375 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:

mm: thp: deny THP for files on anonymous inodes

file_thp_enabled() incorrectly allows THP for files on anonymous inodes
(e.g. guest_memfd and secretmem). These files are created via
alloc_file_pseudo(), which does not call get_write_access() and leaves
inode->i_writecount at 0. Combined with S_ISREG(inode->i_mode) being
true, they appear as read-only regular files when
CONFIG_READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS is enabled, making them eligible for THP
collapse.

Anonymous inodes can never pass the inode_is_open_for_write() check
since their i_writecount is never incremented through the normal VFS
open path. The right thing to do is to exclude them from THP eligibility
altogether, since CONFIG_READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS was designed for real
filesystem files (e.g. shared libraries), not for pseudo-filesystem
inodes.

For guest_memfd, this allows khugepaged and MADV_COLLAPSE to create
large folios in the page cache via the collapse path, but the
guest_memfd fault handler does not support large folios. This triggers
WARN_ON_ONCE(folio_test_large(folio)) in kvm_gmem_fault_user_mapping().

For secretmem, collapse_file() tries to copy page contents through the
direct map, but secretmem pages are removed from the direct map. This
can result in a kernel crash:

    BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffff88810284d000
    RIP: 0010:memcpy_orig+0x16/0x130
    Call Trace:
     collapse_file
     hpage_collapse_scan_file
     madvise_collapse

Secretmem is not affected by the crash on upstream as the memory failure
recovery handles the failed copy gracefully, but it still triggers
confusing false memory failure reports:

    Memory failure: 0x106d96f: recovery action for clean unevictable
    LRU page: Recovered

Check IS_ANON_FILE(inode) in file_thp_enabled() to deny THP for all
anonymous inode files.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-23375?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-23375?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-23375 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-23375 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-2026-23375 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-23375 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-2026-23375 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-2026-23375/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23375/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-23375
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23375
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23375

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23375/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.