Highly exploitable, CVE-2026-89758 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.
Status: Received on 11 Sep 2026, 20:20 UTC
Last updated: 🕘 19 Oct 2026, 09:18 UTC
Originally published on: 🕗 11 Sep 2026, 20:20 UTC
Time between publication and last update: 37 days
CVSS Release: version 3
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVE-2026-89758: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/mempolicy: skip non-present PMDs when queueing folios Patch series "mm: handle device-private PMDs in walk callbacks", v3. Since commit 368076f52ebe ("mm/huge_memory: add device-private THP support to PMD operations") a PMD may hold a device-private swap entry whenever an HMM-based GPU driver migrates an anonymous THP folio to device memory via migrate_vma_pages(). pmd_trans_huge_lock() succeeds for such PMDs (pmd_is_huge() returns true for any non-present, non-none huge PMD), so several MM walk callbacks that used to assume present THP or migration entry are now reachable with a device-private PMD. The results range from a VM_BUG_ON() firing on debug kernels, to an oops on a bogus vmemmap dereference, to silently isolating an unrelated live folio from LRU in the aliasing case. This patch (of 3): queue_folios_pmd() is called under pmd_trans_huge_lock(), whose pmd_is_huge() check returns true for any non-present, non-none PMD softleaf. Passing such a PMD to pmd_folio() treats the softleaf encoding as a hardware PFN and can return a bogus folio pointer. Mirror queue_folios_pte_range(): handle non-present entries before looking up a folio. Keep migration entries counted as failures, but skip other non-present PMDs such as device-private entries. Potential trigger: an HMM-based GPU driver migrates an anonymous THP folio to device memory via migrate_vma_pages(), leaving a device-private PMD. Userspace then calls mbind(), migrate_pages() or set_mempolicy_home_node() on that range.
The exploitability of CVE-2026-89758 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
CVE-2026-89758 presents an accessible attack vector with minimal effort required. Restricting access controls and implementing security updates are critical to reducing exploitation risks.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2026-89758, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2026-89758, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
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