CVE-2026-72169 kho: make sure scratch size is always aligned by CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES
A kernel memory management flaw allows local attackers to cause denial of service by specifying unaligned scratch sizes via command line.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- An administrator
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-72169?
CVE-2026-72169 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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:
kho: make sure scratch size is always aligned by CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES
When using scratch_scale, the scratch sizes are rounded up to CMA_MIN_ALIGNMENT_BYTES since they will be released as MIGRATE_CMA. This is not done when using fixed scratch sizes via command line. This can result in user specifying a size which is not aligned, and thus kernel releasing a pageblock that is only partially scratch.
Do the rounding up for both cases in scratch_size_update().
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72169?
How do I fix CVE-2026-72169?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-72169 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72169 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-72169, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-72169, GHSA-8wjg-7mhv-9g56, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-72169.