# CVE-2026-43292: mm/vmalloc: prevent RCU stalls in kasan_release_vmalloc_node

> Attackers can cause system hangs and potential OOM conditions by triggering RCU stalls during KASAN shadow page cleanup when page owner tracking is enabled.

- **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:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-86193, BELL-CVE-2026-43292, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43292, GHSA-w6qp-j494-g32c, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43292, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-43292, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43292, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43292, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43292

## What is CVE-2026-43292?

CVE-2026-43292 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 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/vmalloc: prevent RCU stalls in kasan_release_vmalloc_node

When CONFIG_PAGE_OWNER is enabled, freeing KASAN shadow pages during
vmalloc cleanup triggers expensive stack unwinding that acquires RCU read
locks.  Processing a large purge_list without rescheduling can cause the
task to hold CPU for extended periods (10+ seconds), leading to RCU stalls
and potential OOM conditions.

The issue manifests in purge_vmap_node() -> kasan_release_vmalloc_node()
where iterating through hundreds or thousands of vmap_area entries and
freeing their associated shadow pages causes:

  rcu: INFO: rcu_preempt detected stalls on CPUs/tasks:
  rcu: Tasks blocked on level-0 rcu_node (CPUs 0-1): P6229/1:b..l
  ...
  task:kworker/0:17 state:R running task stack:28840 pid:6229
  ...
  kasan_release_vmalloc_node+0x1ba/0xad0 mm/vmalloc.c:2299
  purge_vmap_node+0x1ba/0xad0 mm/vmalloc.c:2299

Each call to kasan_release_vmalloc() can free many pages, and with
page_owner tracking, each free triggers save_stack() which performs stack
unwinding under RCU read lock.  Without yielding, this creates an
unbounded RCU critical section.

Add periodic cond_resched() calls within the loop to allow:
- RCU grace periods to complete
- Other tasks to run
- Scheduler to preempt when needed

The fix uses need_resched() for immediate response under load, with a
batch count of 32 as a guaranteed upper bound to prevent worst-case stalls
even under light load.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43292?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43292?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43292 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43292 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-2026-43292 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43292 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 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-2026-43292 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-2026-43292/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43292/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43292
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43292
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43292

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43292/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.