# CVE-2026-31600: arm64: mm: Handle invalid large leaf mappings correctly

> A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel arm64 memory management code can cause a kernel panic during boot on specific systems.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Apr 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-83759, BELL-CVE-2026-31600, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31600, GHSA-6447-4w47-gh9g, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-31600, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-31600, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2026-31600, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31600

## What is CVE-2026-31600?

CVE-2026-31600 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

arm64: mm: Handle invalid large leaf mappings correctly

It has been possible for a long time to mark ptes in the linear map as
invalid. This is done for secretmem, kfence, realm dma memory un/share,
and others, by simply clearing the PTE_VALID bit. But until commit
a166563e7ec37 ("arm64: mm: support large block mapping when
rodata=full") large leaf mappings were never made invalid in this way.

It turns out various parts of the code base are not equipped to handle
invalid large leaf mappings (in the way they are currently encoded) and
I've observed a kernel panic while booting a realm guest on a
BBML2_NOABORT system as a result:

[   15.432706] software IO TLB: Memory encryption is active and system is using DMA bounce buffers
[   15.476896] Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address ffff000019600000
[   15.513762] Mem abort info:
[   15.527245]   ESR = 0x0000000096000046
[   15.548553]   EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits
[   15.572146]   SET = 0, FnV = 0
[   15.592141]   EA = 0, S1PTW = 0
[   15.612694]   FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault
[   15.640644] Data abort info:
[   15.661983]   ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000046, ISS2 = 0x00000000
[   15.694875]   CM = 0, WnR = 1, TnD = 0, TagAccess = 0
[   15.723740]   GCS = 0, Overlay = 0, DirtyBit = 0, Xs = 0
[   15.755776] swapper pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=0000000081f3f000
[   15.800410] [ffff000019600000] pgd=0000000000000000, p4d=180000009ffff403, pud=180000009fffe403, pmd=00e8000199600704
[   15.855046] Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000046 [#1]  SMP
[   15.886394] Modules linked in:
[   15.900029] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 7.0.0-rc4-dirty #4 PREEMPT
[   15.935258] Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
[   15.955612] pstate: 21400005 (nzCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
[   15.986009] pc : __pi_memcpy_generic+0x128/0x22c
[   16.006163] lr : swiotlb_bounce+0xf4/0x158
[   16.024145] sp : ffff80008000b8f0
[   16.038896] x29: ffff80008000b8f0 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000
[   16.069953] x26: ffffb3976d261ba8 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: ffff000019600000
[   16.100876] x23: 0000000000000001 x22: ffff0000043430d0 x21: 0000000000007ff0
[   16.131946] x20: 0000000084570010 x19: 0000000000000000 x18: ffff00001ffe3fcc
[   16.163073] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 00000000003fffff x15: 646e612065766974
[   16.194131] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000000
[   16.225059] x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000010 x9 : 0000000000000018
[   16.256113] x8 : 0000000000000018 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000
[   16.287203] x5 : ffff000019607ff0 x4 : ffff000004578000 x3 : ffff000019600000
[   16.318145] x2 : 0000000000007ff0 x1 : ffff000004570010 x0 : ffff000019600000
[   16.349071] Call trace:
[   16.360143]  __pi_memcpy_generic+0x128/0x22c (P)
[   16.380310]  swiotlb_tbl_map_single+0x154/0x2b4
[   16.400282]  swiotlb_map+0x5c/0x228
[   16.415984]  dma_map_phys+0x244/0x2b8
[   16.432199]  dma_map_page_attrs+0x44/0x58
[   16.449782]  virtqueue_map_page_attrs+0x38/0x44
[   16.469596]  virtqueue_map_single_attrs+0xc0/0x130
[   16.490509]  virtnet_rq_alloc.isra.0+0xa4/0x1fc
[   16.510355]  try_fill_recv+0x2a4/0x584
[   16.526989]  virtnet_open+0xd4/0x238
[   16.542775]  __dev_open+0x110/0x24c
[   16.558280]  __dev_change_flags+0x194/0x20c
[   16.576879]  netif_change_flags+0x24/0x6c
[   16.594489]  dev_change_flags+0x48/0x7c
[   16.611462]  ip_auto_config+0x258/0x1114
[   16.628727]  do_one_initcall+0x80/0x1c8
[   16.645590]  kernel_init_freeable+0x208/0x2f0
[   16.664917]  kernel_init+0x24/0x1e0
[   16.680295]  ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
[   16.696369] Code: 927cec03 cb0e0021 8b0e0042 a9411c26 (a900340c)
[   16.723106] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
[   16.752866] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x0000000b
[   16.792556] Kernel Offset: 0x3396ea200000 from 0xffff8000800000
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-31600?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-31600?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-31600 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31600 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-2026-31600 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-31600 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 24 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-31600 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-2026-31600/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-31600/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-31600
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-31600
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-31600

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-31600/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
