CVE-2026-46020 mm/damon/core: validate damos_quota_goal->nid for node_mem_{used,free}_bp

What is CVE-2026-46020?

CVE-2026-46020 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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/damon/core: validate damos_quota_goal->nid for node_mem_{used,free}_bp

Patch series "mm/damon/core: validate damos_quota_goal->nid".

node_mem[cg]_{used,free}_bp DAMOS quota goals receive the node id. The node id is used for si_meminfo_node() and NODE_DATA() without proper validation. As a result, privileged users can trigger an out of bounds memory access using DAMON_SYSFS. Fix the issues.

The issue was originally reported [1] with a fix by another author. The original author announced [2] that they will stop working including the fix that was still in the review stage. Hence I'm restarting this.

This patch (of 2):

Users can set damos_quota_goal->nid with arbitrary value for node_mem_{used,free}_bp. But DAMON core is using those for si_meminfo_node() without the validation of the value. This can result in out of bounds memory access. The issue can actually triggered using DAMON user-space tool (damo), like below.

$ sudo ./damo start --damos_action stat \ --damos_quota_goal node_mem_used_bp 50% -1 \ --damos_quota_interval 1s $ sudo dmesg [...] [ 65.565986] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000098

Fix this issue by adding the validation of the given node. If an invalid node id is given, it returns 0% for used memory ratio, and 100% for free memory ratio.

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-46020?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-46020?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2026-46020 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-46020 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-46020, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-46020, GHSA-qpc9-3gvw-7vfq, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-46020.