CVE-2026-74518

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel. The allocate_file_region_entries() function, responsible for managing huge page memory regions, can suffer from list corruption. This occurs because the list_splice() operation does not properly re-initialize a list head, allowing concurrent access to shared memory maps to corrupt the internal data structure. An attacker could exploit this to cause a kernel panic, leading to a Denial of Service, or potentially a use-after-free condition.

This vulnerability is rated as having an Important severity because an unprivileged local user or process can cause a kernel panic, resulting in a denial of service, or potentially achieve local privilege escalation via memory corruption. The flaw is exposed in multi-threaded or multi-process environments where concurrent operations share hugetlbfs mappings, such as virtualization configurations sharing memory backing files between host processes. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is unaffected because the flawed code is not present in its kernel codebase.

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 for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.