All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-98361

Linux: RDMA/rxe: Restore HMM_PFN_WRITE check in ODP write paths

Linux LinuxOperating systems
CVSS
7.8High
ExploitationNo known exploitationNot in CISA KEV, which does not prove it is unexploitedCISA KEV
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.13%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in2d6c6f94d3e1cde049fe5db71dbd5549f10b2de1Also 769001ce838d907ecaa95f1d0a4e8fc86f761f9fCVE List
Published6 Oct 2026Updated 19 Oct 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 2d6c6f94d3e1cde049fe5db71dbd5549f10b2de1LinuxCVE List
  • 769001ce838d907ecaa95f1d0a4e8fc86f761f9fLinuxCVE List

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

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

RDMA/rxe: Restore HMM_PFN_WRITE check in ODP write paths

Commit 0b261d7c1cd3 ("RDMA/rxe: Break endless pagefault loop for RO pages") dropped the access permission test from rxe_check_pagefault() and left only HMM_PFN_VALID. A page faulted in read-only, for example a page-cache folio behind a PROT_READ file mapping, then satisfies the check and ODP write operations (RDMA WRITE, RDMA READ response, SEND payload, atomics) modify it through kmap without ever breaking CoW.

An unprivileged user can register an ODP MR over such a mapping and have incoming RDMA traffic overwrite the page cache of a file it only holds O_RDONLY, including /etc/passwd or setuid binaries. This is the same primitive class as Dirty COW and CVE-2022-2590.

mlx5 has the missing invariant: its ODP path sets the device write bit only for pfns that carry HMM_PFN_WRITE. Restore it in rxe by requiring HMM_PFN_WRITE in rxe_check_pagefault() for every operation except RXE_PAGEFAULT_RDONLY. A write to a non-writable VMA now fails the one fault attempt with -EPERM from hmm_vma_fault() instead of re-faulting forever. For a writable VMA the fault breaks CoW and the write lands in the private page.

Keep pmem flushes on the read-only check. arch_wb_cache_pmem() never modifies memory, and the FLUSH access bits do not make the umem writable, so classifying flushes as writes would make every flush against a flush-only MR fail.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 8

  • Linuxaffected: 0b261d7c1cd32dc93cbc92425fb55e67b24c6638 before c6f56982ec5c7da83c4bdfcce3b6db18bcfe6425CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 0b261d7c1cd32dc93cbc92425fb55e67b24c6638 before 2d6c6f94d3e1cde049fe5db71dbd5549f10b2de1CVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 0b261d7c1cd32dc93cbc92425fb55e67b24c6638 before 769001ce838d907ecaa95f1d0a4e8fc86f761f9fCVE List
  • Linuxaffected: 6.16CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: all versions before 6.16CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 6.18.54 through 6.18.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.2.8 through 7.2.*CVE List
  • Linuxunaffected: 7.3CVE List

References 3