CVE-2026-53207 mm/memory-failure: fix hugetlb_lock AA deadlock in get_huge_page_for_hwpoison

What is CVE-2026-53207?

CVE-2026-53207 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 25 Jun 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/memory-failure: fix hugetlb_lock AA deadlock in get_huge_page_for_hwpoison

Two concurrent madvise(MADV_HWPOISON) calls on the same hugetlb page can trigger a recursive spinlock self-deadlock (AA deadlock) on hugetlb_lock when racing with a concurrent unmap:

thread#0 thread#1 -------- -------- madvise(folio, MADV_HWPOISON) -> poisons the folio successfully madvise(folio, MADV_HWPOISON) unmap(folio) try_memory_failure_hugetlb get_huge_page_for_hwpoison spin_lock_irq(&hugetlb_lock) <- held __get_huge_page_for_hwpoison hugetlb_update_hwpoison() -> MF_HUGETLB_FOLIO_PRE_POISONED goto out: folio_put() refcount: 1 -> 0 free_huge_folio() spin_lock_irqsave(&hugetlb_lock) -> AA DEADLOCK!

The out: path in __get_huge_page_for_hwpoison() calls folio_put() to drop the GUP reference while the hugetlb_lock is still held by the hugetlb.c wrapper get_huge_page_for_hwpoison(). If concurrent unmap has released the page table mapping reference, folio_put() drops the folio refcount to zero, triggering free_huge_folio() which attempts to re-acquire the non-recursive hugetlb_lock.

Fix this by moving hugetlb_lock acquisition from the hugetlb.c wrapper into get_huge_page_for_hwpoison(). Place spin_unlock_irq() before the folio_put() at the out: label so the folio is always released outside the lock.

[[email protected]: fix race, rename label per Miaohe]

Weakness: CWE-667

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53207?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2026-53207?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-53207 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53207 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 AZL-90543, BELL-CVE-2026-53207, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53207, GHSA-hfrj-r4v7-3997, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53207, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-53207 and 2 more.