CVE-2026-74481: mm/page_reporting: use system_freezable_wq to fix UAF during suspend

Published Aug 15, 2026
·
Updated

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

mm/pagereporting: use systemfreezablewq to fix UAF during suspend

During PM freeze (e.g. S3 suspend or S4 hibernation), device drivers like virtioballoon reset their underlying virtio devices and delete their virtqueues via vdev->config->delvqs().

However, page reporting work (pagereportingprocess) was scheduled on the global systemwq. Because systemwq lacks the WQFREEZABLE flag, the PM freezer skips it, leaving pagereportingprocess active during suspend.

If pages are freed into the buddy allocator while suspending (for example, when core MM invokes the balloon shrinker during S4 hibernation image saving), page reporting triggers virtballoonfreepagereport() on deleted virtqueues, resulting in a Use-After-Free / General Protection Fault:

[ 196.795226] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xaa1436fe70dae6df: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 196.825967] Workqueue: events pagereportingprocess [ 196.831038] RIP: 0010:virtqueueaddsplit+0x233/0x4c0 [virtioring] [ 196.927073] virtballoonfreepagereport+0x3a/0xe0 [virtioballoon] [ 196.946943] pagereportingprocess+0x370/0x4f0

Fix this by switching page reporting work to systemfreezablewq. This ensures that the PM freezer pauses pagereportingprocess before device drivers destroy their reporting virtqueues. Because the reporting worker is frozen, memory reclamation/freeing (e.g. via shrinker execution) can safely return pages to MM during freeze without triggering unfrozen reporting work on deleted virtqueues.

This aligns with the driver's existing design. The comment in virtballoonfreeze() states: / The workqueue is already frozen by the PM core before this function is called. /

Testing: I have verified these fixes using Google’s virtualization infrastructure by running continuous suspend/resume iterations (40+ cycles) while churning memory using stress-ng (stress-ng --vm 4 --vm-bytes 60% --timeout 1) to constantly create free pages for the buddy allocator. We also set the pagereportingorder parameter to 0 to make the page reporting worker highly sensitive, forcing it to pick up any 4K free pages. This confirmed that the UAF crashes are no longer reproducible.

Affected Software

1 affected component
Linux Kernel

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

  1. Upgrade

    Upgrade Linux kernel to a version that resolves this vulnerability.

    Patch mm/page_reporting: use system_freezable_wq to fix UAF during suspend
  2. Configuration

    Switch scheduling of page reporting work (page_reporting_process) from system_wq to system_freezable_wq so the PM freezer pauses page_reporting_process before device-freezer operations proceed during suspend/hibernate.

    page reporting workqueue (page_reporting_process) workqueue selection = system_freezable_wq
  3. Configuration

    Set the page_reporting_order parameter to 0 to make the page reporting work pick up free pages in a way that avoids triggering the UAF during freeze/suspend.

    page reporting page_reporting_order = 0

Event History

Aug 15, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·12:27 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·12:27 PM
Description
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-74481?

CVE-2026-74481 has a risk rating of 46.

2

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2026-74481?

CVE-2026-74481 is classified as a Use After Free vulnerability.

3

How do I fix CVE-2026-74481?

To fix CVE-2026-74481, update the Linux kernel to the latest version where the vulnerability is resolved.

4

What impact does CVE-2026-74481 have on system security?

CVE-2026-74481 may lead to potential system instability or exploitation during system suspend operations.

5

When was CVE-2026-74481 published?

CVE-2026-74481 was published on August 15, 2026.

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