UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43258: Medium severity ubuntu/linux vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: alpha: fix user-space corruption during memory compaction Alpha systems can suffer sporadic user-space crashes and heap corruption when memory compaction is enabled. Symptoms include SIGSEGV, glibc allocator failures (e.g. "unaligned tcache chunk"), and compiler internal errors. The failures disappear when compaction is disabled or when using global TLB invalidation. The root cause is insufficient TLB shootdown during page migration. Alpha relies on ASN-based MM context rollover for instruction cache coherency, but this alone is not sufficient to prevent stale data or instruction translations from surviving migration. Fix this by introducing a migration-specific helper that combines: - MM context invalidation (ASN rollover), - immediate per-CPU TLB invalidation (TBI), - synchronous cross-CPU shootdown when required. The helper is used only by migration/compaction paths to avoid changing global TLB semantics. Additionally, update flushtlbother(), pteclear(), to use READONCE()/WRITEONCE() for correct SMP memory ordering. This fixes observed crashes on both UP and SMP Alpha systems.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-aws-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.63~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azure-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1063.71~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azure-fde-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1062.69~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gcp-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1063.69~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-hwe-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-ibm-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.61~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-134.134.1~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-nvidia-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1058.61~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-oracle-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1057.58~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-riscv-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-134.134~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-realtime-6.8to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.1-1055.56~22.04.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linuxto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-134.134 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-awsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.63 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azureto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1063.71 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azure-fdeto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1062.69 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azure-nvidiato a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1039.42 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gcpto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1063.69 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gketo a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1058.64 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gkeopto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1045.48 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-ibmto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.61 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-lowlatencyto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-134.134.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-nvidiato a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1058.61 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-nvidia-lowlatencyto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1058.61.1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-nvidia-tegrato a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1029.30 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-oracleto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1057.58 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-raspito a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.64 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-xilinxto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1032.33 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-bluefieldto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1026.30 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-raspi-realtimeto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-2049.50 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-realtimeto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.1-1055.56 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-aws-fipsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1060.63+fips1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-azure-fipsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1062.69+fips1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-fipsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-134.134+fips1 - Upgrade
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ubuntu/linux-gcp-fipsto a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 6.8.0-1063.69+fips1 - Configuration
Disable memory compaction as a mitigation for the user-space corruption and heap corruption issue.
Alpha Linux kernel memory compaction = disabled - Compensating control
Introduce a migration-specific helper for Alpha page migration/compaction that combines MM context invalidation through ASN rollover, immediate per-CPU TLB invalidation using TBI, and synchronous cross-CPU TLB shootdown when required.
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which systems are actually exposed to the observed failures?
The issue affects Alpha systems when memory compaction is enabled. The reported crashes and heap corruption occur on both uniprocessor and SMP Alpha systems.
Does an attacker need remote access or user interaction to trigger this issue?
The vector is local, with low attack complexity and low privileges required; no user interaction is required. The provided data does not describe a specific exploit technique.
What symptoms can indicate that a system is affected?
Observed symptoms include sporadic user-space SIGSEGV crashes, glibc allocator errors such as "unaligned tcache chunk," and compiler internal errors. These failures disappear when memory compaction is disabled or when global TLB invalidation is used.
What mitigation is available if the fix cannot be deployed immediately?
Disabling memory compaction avoids the observed failures. Using global TLB invalidation also makes the failures disappear, although the described fix instead applies migration-specific TLB handling to avoid changing global semantics.