CVE-2026-72172

high

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/mm_init: fix uninitialized struct pages for ZONE_DEVICE If DAX memory is hotplugged into an unoccupied subsection of an early section, section_activate() reuses the unoptimized boot memmap. However, compound_nr_pages() still assumes that vmemmap optimization is in effect and initializes only the reduced number of struct pages. As a result, the remaining tail struct pages are left uninitialized, which can later lead to unexpected behavior or crashes. Fix this by treating early sections as unoptimized when calculating how many struct pages to initialize.

References

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/da5234df0941665f3a3f5b80f3dab94046537be0

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd681403a87085562499d60325b7b45d3be11217

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b91e27bce37cab9f35de0059278ebe457ca9878b

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/511a60e71aec308b24722cffc1912bf6befb87bf

https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/11f2826e9ee6f24aaa774e3dcd75abbe4b3091b6

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-08-15

Updated: 2026-08-15

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 5.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:C

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 7.8

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: High

EPSS

EPSS: 0.00209