Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: kernel (UTSA-2025-987597)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 271010

Synopsis

The Unity Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2025-987597 advisory.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

fs/proc: task_mmu.c: don't read mapcount for migration entry

The syzbot reported the below BUG:

kernel BUG at include/linux/page-flags.h:785! invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN CPU: 1 PID: 4392 Comm: syz-executor560 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc6-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 RIP: 0010:PageDoubleMap include/linux/page-flags.h:785 [inline] RIP: 0010:__page_mapcount+0x2d2/0x350 mm/util.c:744 Call Trace:
page_mapcount include/linux/mm.h:837 [inline] smaps_account+0x470/0xb10 fs/proc/task_mmu.c:466 smaps_pte_entry fs/proc/task_mmu.c:538 [inline] smaps_pte_range+0x611/0x1250 fs/proc/task_mmu.c:601 walk_pmd_range mm/pagewalk.c:128 [inline] walk_pud_range mm/pagewalk.c:205 [inline] walk_p4d_range mm/pagewalk.c:240 [inline] walk_pgd_range mm/pagewalk.c:277 [inline]
__walk_page_range+0xe23/0x1ea0 mm/pagewalk.c:379 walk_page_vma+0x277/0x350 mm/pagewalk.c:530 smap_gather_stats.part.0+0x148/0x260 fs/proc/task_mmu.c:768 smap_gather_stats fs/proc/task_mmu.c:741 [inline] show_smap+0xc6/0x440 fs/proc/task_mmu.c:822 seq_read_iter+0xbb0/0x1240 fs/seq_file.c:272 seq_read+0x3e0/0x5b0 fs/seq_file.c:162 vfs_read+0x1b5/0x600 fs/read_write.c:479 ksys_read+0x12d/0x250 fs/read_write.c:619 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x35/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae

The reproducer was trying to read /proc/$PID/smaps when calling MADV_FREE at the mean time. MADV_FREE may split THPs if it is called for partial THP. It may trigger the below race:

CPU A CPU B
----- ----- smaps walk: MADV_FREE:
page_mapcount() PageCompound() split_huge_page() page = compound_head(page) PageDoubleMap(page)

When calling PageDoubleMap() this page is not a tail page of THP anymore so the BUG is triggered.

This could be fixed by elevated refcount of the page before calling mapcount, but that would prevent it from counting migration entries, and it seems overkilling because the race just could happen when PMD is split so all PTE entries of tail pages are actually migration entries, and smaps_account() does treat migration entries as mapcount == 1 as Kirill pointed out.

Add a new parameter for smaps_account() to tell this entry is migration entry then skip calling page_mapcount(). Don't skip getting mapcount for device private entries since they do track references with mapcount.

Pagemap also has the similar issue although it was not reported. Fixed it as well.

[[email protected]: v4] [[email protected]: avoid unused variable warning in pagemap_pmd_range()]

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kernel package.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?93fd97fb

http://www.nessus.org/u?9d2baec7

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-48802

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 271010

File Name: unity_linux_UTSA-2025-987597.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Published: 10/21/2025

Updated: 10/21/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 4.6

Temporal Score: 3.4

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2022-48802

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/UOS-Server/release, Host/UOS-Server/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 10/15/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/8/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2022-48802