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

mm/alloc_tag: clear codetag for pages allocated before page_ext initialization

Due to initialization ordering, page_ext is allocated and initialized
relatively late during boot. Some pages have already been allocated and
freed before page_ext becomes available, leaving their codetag
uninitialized.

A clear example is in init_section_page_ext(): alloc_page_ext() calls
kmemleak_alloc(). If the slab cache has no free objects, it falls back to
the buddy allocator to allocate memory. However, at this point page_ext
is not yet fully initialized, so these newly allocated pages have no
codetag set. These pages may later be reclaimed by KASAN, which causes
the warning to trigger when they are freed because their codetag ref is
still empty.

Use a global array to track pages allocated before page_ext is fully
initialized. The array size is fixed at 8192 entries, and will emit a
warning if this limit is exceeded. When page_ext initialization
completes, set their codetag to empty to avoid warnings when they are
freed later.

This warning is only observed with CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=Y and
mem_profiling_compressed disabled:

[ 9.582133] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[ 9.582137] alloc_tag was not set
[ 9.582139] WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:164 at __pgalloc_tag_sub+0x40f/0x550, CPU#5: systemd/1
[ 9.582190] CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Not tainted 7.0.0-rc4 #1 PREEMPT(lazy)
[ 9.582192] Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
[ 9.582194] RIP: 0010:__pgalloc_tag_sub+0x40f/0x550
[ 9.582196] Code: 00 00 4c 29 e5 48 8b 05 1f 88 56 05 48 8d 4c ad 00 48 8d 2c c8 e9 87 fd ff ff 0f 0b 0f 0b e9 f3 fe ff ff 48 8d 3d 61 2f ed 03 <67> 48 0f b9 3a e9 b3 fd ff ff 0f 0b eb e4 e8 5e cd 14 02 4c 89 c7
[ 9.582197] RSP: 0018:ffffc9000001f940 EFLAGS: 00010246
[ 9.582200] RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 1ffff92000003f2b RCX: 1ffff110200d806c
[ 9.582201] RDX: ffff8881006c0360 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: ffffffff9bc7b460
[ 9.582202] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: fffffbfff3a62324
[ 9.582203] R10: ffffffff9d311923 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffea0004001b00
[ 9.582204] R13: 0000000000002000 R14: ffffea0000000000 R15: ffff8881006c0360
[ 9.582206] FS: 00007ffbbcf2d940(0000) GS:ffff888450479000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 9.582208] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 9.582210] CR2: 000055ee3aa260d0 CR3: 0000000148b67005 CR4: 0000000000770ef0
[ 9.582211] PKRU: 55555554
[ 9.582212] Call Trace:
[ 9.582213] <TASK>
[ 9.582214] ? __pfx___pgalloc_tag_sub+0x10/0x10
[ 9.582216] ? check_bytes_and_report+0x68/0x140
[ 9.582219] __free_frozen_pages+0x2e4/0x1150
[ 9.582221] ? __free_slab+0xc2/0x2b0
[ 9.582224] qlist_free_all+0x4c/0xf0
[ 9.582227] kasan_quarantine_reduce+0x15d/0x180
[ 9.582229] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x69/0x90
[ 9.582232] kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x14a/0x500
[ 9.582234] do_getname+0x96/0x310
[ 9.582237] do_readlinkat+0x91/0x2f0
[ 9.582239] ? __pfx_do_readlinkat+0x10/0x10
[ 9.582240] ? get_random_bytes_user+0x1df/0x2c0
[ 9.582244] __x64_sys_readlinkat+0x96/0x100
[ 9.582246] do_syscall_64+0xce/0x650
[ 9.582250] ? __x64_sys_getrandom+0x13a/0x1e0
[ 9.582252] ? __pfx___x64_sys_getrandom+0x10/0x10
[ 9.582254] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650
[ 9.582255] ? ksys_read+0xfc/0x1d0
[ 9.582258] ? __pfx_ksys_read+0x10/0x10
[ 9.582260] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650
[ 9.582262] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650
[ 9.582264] ? __pfx_fput_close_sync+0x10/0x10
[ 9.582266] ? file_close_fd_locked+0x178/0x2a0
[ 9.582268] ? __x64_sys_faccessat2+0x96/0x100
[ 9.582269] ? __x64_sys_close+0x7d/0xd0
[ 9.582271] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650
[ 9.582273] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650
[ 9.582275] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x50/0xa0
[ 9.582277] ? clear_bhb_l
---truncated---

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History

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-457

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/alloc_tag: clear codetag for pages allocated before page_ext initialization Due to initialization ordering, page_ext is allocated and initialized relatively late during boot. Some pages have already been allocated and freed before page_ext becomes available, leaving their codetag uninitialized. A clear example is in init_section_page_ext(): alloc_page_ext() calls kmemleak_alloc(). If the slab cache has no free objects, it falls back to the buddy allocator to allocate memory. However, at this point page_ext is not yet fully initialized, so these newly allocated pages have no codetag set. These pages may later be reclaimed by KASAN, which causes the warning to trigger when they are freed because their codetag ref is still empty. Use a global array to track pages allocated before page_ext is fully initialized. The array size is fixed at 8192 entries, and will emit a warning if this limit is exceeded. When page_ext initialization completes, set their codetag to empty to avoid warnings when they are freed later. This warning is only observed with CONFIG_MEM_ALLOC_PROFILING_DEBUG=Y and mem_profiling_compressed disabled: [ 9.582133] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 9.582137] alloc_tag was not set [ 9.582139] WARNING: ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:164 at __pgalloc_tag_sub+0x40f/0x550, CPU#5: systemd/1 [ 9.582190] CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Not tainted 7.0.0-rc4 #1 PREEMPT(lazy) [ 9.582192] Hardware name: Red Hat KVM, BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 9.582194] RIP: 0010:__pgalloc_tag_sub+0x40f/0x550 [ 9.582196] Code: 00 00 4c 29 e5 48 8b 05 1f 88 56 05 48 8d 4c ad 00 48 8d 2c c8 e9 87 fd ff ff 0f 0b 0f 0b e9 f3 fe ff ff 48 8d 3d 61 2f ed 03 <67> 48 0f b9 3a e9 b3 fd ff ff 0f 0b eb e4 e8 5e cd 14 02 4c 89 c7 [ 9.582197] RSP: 0018:ffffc9000001f940 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 9.582200] RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 1ffff92000003f2b RCX: 1ffff110200d806c [ 9.582201] RDX: ffff8881006c0360 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: ffffffff9bc7b460 [ 9.582202] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: fffffbfff3a62324 [ 9.582203] R10: ffffffff9d311923 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffffea0004001b00 [ 9.582204] R13: 0000000000002000 R14: ffffea0000000000 R15: ffff8881006c0360 [ 9.582206] FS: 00007ffbbcf2d940(0000) GS:ffff888450479000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 9.582208] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 9.582210] CR2: 000055ee3aa260d0 CR3: 0000000148b67005 CR4: 0000000000770ef0 [ 9.582211] PKRU: 55555554 [ 9.582212] Call Trace: [ 9.582213] <TASK> [ 9.582214] ? __pfx___pgalloc_tag_sub+0x10/0x10 [ 9.582216] ? check_bytes_and_report+0x68/0x140 [ 9.582219] __free_frozen_pages+0x2e4/0x1150 [ 9.582221] ? __free_slab+0xc2/0x2b0 [ 9.582224] qlist_free_all+0x4c/0xf0 [ 9.582227] kasan_quarantine_reduce+0x15d/0x180 [ 9.582229] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x69/0x90 [ 9.582232] kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x14a/0x500 [ 9.582234] do_getname+0x96/0x310 [ 9.582237] do_readlinkat+0x91/0x2f0 [ 9.582239] ? __pfx_do_readlinkat+0x10/0x10 [ 9.582240] ? get_random_bytes_user+0x1df/0x2c0 [ 9.582244] __x64_sys_readlinkat+0x96/0x100 [ 9.582246] do_syscall_64+0xce/0x650 [ 9.582250] ? __x64_sys_getrandom+0x13a/0x1e0 [ 9.582252] ? __pfx___x64_sys_getrandom+0x10/0x10 [ 9.582254] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650 [ 9.582255] ? ksys_read+0xfc/0x1d0 [ 9.582258] ? __pfx_ksys_read+0x10/0x10 [ 9.582260] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650 [ 9.582262] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650 [ 9.582264] ? __pfx_fput_close_sync+0x10/0x10 [ 9.582266] ? file_close_fd_locked+0x178/0x2a0 [ 9.582268] ? __x64_sys_faccessat2+0x96/0x100 [ 9.582269] ? __x64_sys_close+0x7d/0xd0 [ 9.582271] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650 [ 9.582273] ? do_syscall_64+0x114/0x650 [ 9.582275] ? clear_bhb_loop+0x50/0xa0 [ 9.582277] ? clear_bhb_l ---truncated---
Title mm/alloc_tag: clear codetag for pages allocated before page_ext initialization
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
References

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2026-06-08T15:41:21.972Z

Reserved: 2026-05-13T15:03:33.109Z

Link: CVE-2026-46279

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-06-08T17:16:45.530

Modified: 2026-06-08T17:16:45.530

Link: CVE-2026-46279

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-06-08T19:15:30Z

Weaknesses