CVE-2021-47491
kernel: mm: khugepaged: skip huge page collapse for special files
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · May 22, 2024
Updated · June 28, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm: khugepaged: skip huge page collapse for special files
The read-only THP for filesystems will collapse THP for files opened readonly and mapped with VM_EXEC. The intended usecase is to avoid TLB misses for large text segments. But it doesn't restrict the file types so a THP could be collapsed for a non-regular file, for example, block device, if it is opened readonly and mapped with EXEC permission. This may cause bugs, like [1] and [2].
This is definitely not the intended usecase, so just collapse THP for regular files in order to close the attack surface.
[[email protected]: fix vm_file check [3]]
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-664 · Improper Control of a Resource Through its Lifetime