CVE-2026-72172

mm/mm_init: fix uninitialized struct pages for ZONE_DEVICE

State: Published
Severity: 7.8 High
Published: Aug 15, 2026
Updated: Oct 16, 2026
Reserved: Aug 9, 2026

Description

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

mm/mm_init: fix uninitialized struct pages for ZONE_DEVICE

If DAX memory is hotplugged into an unoccupied subsection of an early section, section_activate() reuses the unoptimized boot memmap. However, compound_nr_pages() still assumes that vmemmap optimization is in effect and initializes only the reduced number of struct pages. As a result, the remaining tail struct pages are left uninitialized, which can later lead to unexpected behavior or crashes.

Fix this by treating early sections as unoptimized when calculating how many struct pages to initialize.

Scores

CVSS	Score	Vector	Source
3.1	7.8 High	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	Linux

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

Product	Versions
LinuxLinux	6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before c5ef574d57e4a701485c13f26822328c91f05413Affected 6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before 511a60e71aec308b24722cffc1912bf6befb87bfAffected 6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before 11f2826e9ee6f24aaa774e3dcd75abbe4b3091b6Affected 6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before da5234df0941665f3a3f5b80f3dab94046537be0Affected 6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before b91e27bce37cab9f35de0059278ebe457ca9878bAffected 6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before cd681403a87085562499d60325b7b45d3be11217Affected
LinuxLinux	5.19Affected before 5.19Not affected 6.1.184 through 6.1.Not affected 6.6.145 through 6.6.Not affected 6.12.97 through 6.12.Not affected 6.18.40 through 6.18.Not affected 7.1.5 through 7.1.*Not affected 7.2 and laterNot affected

Product

Versions

LinuxLinux

6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before c5ef574d57e4a701485c13f26822328c91f05413Affected
6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before 511a60e71aec308b24722cffc1912bf6befb87bfAffected
6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before 11f2826e9ee6f24aaa774e3dcd75abbe4b3091b6Affected
6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before da5234df0941665f3a3f5b80f3dab94046537be0Affected
6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before b91e27bce37cab9f35de0059278ebe457ca9878bAffected
6fd3620b342861de9547ea01d28f664892ef51a1 to before cd681403a87085562499d60325b7b45d3be11217Affected

LinuxLinux

5.19Affected
before 5.19Not affected
6.1.184 through 6.1.*Not affected
6.6.145 through 6.6.*Not affected
6.12.97 through 6.12.*Not affected
6.18.40 through 6.18.*Not affected
7.1.5 through 7.1.*Not affected
7.2 and laterNot affected

References

Every record here comes from the CVE Program’s CVE List. © 1999–2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. The records are reproduced under the CVE Program terms of use.