# CVE-2026-89805: drm/pagemap: Fix folio allocation fallback and use-after-put

> A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's DRM pagemap allows attackers to potentially execute code or cause a system crash.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 16 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 19 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-89805, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-89805, GHSA-96j2-9c5r-35jc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-89805

## What is CVE-2026-89805?

CVE-2026-89805 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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:

drm/pagemap: Fix folio allocation fallback and use-after-put

drm_pagemap_migrate_populate_ram_pfn() had two issues when populating
RAM PFNs with higher-order folios:

1. The higher-order vma_alloc_folio()/folio_alloc() calls did not pass
   __GFP_NOWARN, so a THP allocation failure under memory pressure
   would spam the kernel log, and there was no fallback path despite a
   TODO comment stating one was needed. Add __GFP_NOWARN to the
   higher-order allocation and, on failure, fall back to order-0
   allocations for the entire range originally covered by the failed
   higher-order allocation, leaving MIGRATE_PFN_COMPOUND unset for
   those PFNs.

2. In the free_pages error path, order was computed via
   folio_order(page_folio(page)) *after* put_page(page) had already
   dropped the reference, resulting in a use-after-free/put when that
   was the last reference on the page. Compute order before releasing
   the page.

Introducing the fallback in 1. also requires the source page array
handed to ->copy_to_ram() to be built differently. Both callers only
populated the entry at the head of each source folio, relying on the
copy callback to derive the rest of the folio from the order recorded
in the matching drm_pagemap_addr. Once the destination has been demoted
to order-0 folios the drm_pagemap_addr entries are per-page, so a source
page is needed for every one of them; leaving them NULL makes the copy
callback stop after the first page and the remainder of the range is
never copied.

The source folio is only split later, by migrate_vma_pages() /
migrate_device_pages(), so its order cannot be used to detect the
demotion - test the destination for MIGRATE_PFN_COMPOUND instead. Factor
the array population out into drm_pagemap_migrate_populate_src_pages()
and use it from both drm_pagemap_evict_to_ram() and
__drm_pagemap_migrate_to_ram().

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89805?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-89805?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-89805 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89805 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-89805 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-89805 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Sep 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-2026-89805 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2026-89805/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89805/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-89805
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-89805
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-89805

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-89805/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.