In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/secretmem: properly account locked pages
secretmem accounts folios by treating memory as if it were mlock()'d and
thus limited by the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit.
However the folios are unevictable and remain so until the inode is
evicted, eliminating usual mlock() semantics - mapping folios then
unmapping them does not clear their unevictable state, since it depends on
AS_UNEVICTABLE, not PG_mlocked.
A user can therefore easily work around the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit - simply
map then unmap and VmLck no longer counts the secretmem range. Worse,
folios are not accounted in the process's RSS, meaning the OOM killer
won't know to kill the process.
Repeatedly mapping/unmapping (or forking) can then result in the
consumption of all available system memory with unevictable folios and
cause system instability.
A secretmem fd can be passed between processes and over fork so a
per-process limit simply does not make sense, so follow the precedent set
by io_uring, perf, skbuff, iommufd and xdp by tracking the number of
locked pages in user_struct->locked_vm.
Since the scope tracked is actually inode lifetime, the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK
applies per-user not per-process, so it doesn't make sense to bypass for
users with CAP_IPC_LOCK, therefore remove this bypass.
There is simply no reason to carry on marking the mapping as mlock()'d
since it's misleading and the lifecycle is now correctly handled, so
remove this too.
Note that secretmem does not support any form of truncation (including
hole punching) and the folios are unreclaimable, so the folios need only
be accounted on fault and unaccounted on inode destruction.
__secretmem_account_pages() is more or less a duplicate of the code that
io_uring etc. use, but since this is a bug fix that needs backporting,
defer any de-duplication efforts to a follow-up.
test_mlock_limit() asserts mlock_future_ok() on mmap(), however this has
been removed, so remove the test altogether for the fix. A new test will
be sent separately for upstream.
mm/secretmem: properly account locked pages
secretmem accounts folios by treating memory as if it were mlock()'d and
thus limited by the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit.
However the folios are unevictable and remain so until the inode is
evicted, eliminating usual mlock() semantics - mapping folios then
unmapping them does not clear their unevictable state, since it depends on
AS_UNEVICTABLE, not PG_mlocked.
A user can therefore easily work around the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit - simply
map then unmap and VmLck no longer counts the secretmem range. Worse,
folios are not accounted in the process's RSS, meaning the OOM killer
won't know to kill the process.
Repeatedly mapping/unmapping (or forking) can then result in the
consumption of all available system memory with unevictable folios and
cause system instability.
A secretmem fd can be passed between processes and over fork so a
per-process limit simply does not make sense, so follow the precedent set
by io_uring, perf, skbuff, iommufd and xdp by tracking the number of
locked pages in user_struct->locked_vm.
Since the scope tracked is actually inode lifetime, the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK
applies per-user not per-process, so it doesn't make sense to bypass for
users with CAP_IPC_LOCK, therefore remove this bypass.
There is simply no reason to carry on marking the mapping as mlock()'d
since it's misleading and the lifecycle is now correctly handled, so
remove this too.
Note that secretmem does not support any form of truncation (including
hole punching) and the folios are unreclaimable, so the folios need only
be accounted on fault and unaccounted on inode destruction.
__secretmem_account_pages() is more or less a duplicate of the code that
io_uring etc. use, but since this is a bug fix that needs backporting,
defer any de-duplication efforts to a follow-up.
test_mlock_limit() asserts mlock_future_ok() on mmap(), however this has
been removed, so remove the test altogether for the fix. A new test will
be sent separately for upstream.
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | unaffected |
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Linux | Linux | affected |
|
No data.
No data.
No data.
Advisories
No advisories yet.
Fixes
Solution
No solution given by the vendor.
Workaround
No workaround given by the vendor.
References
History
Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/secretmem: properly account locked pages secretmem accounts folios by treating memory as if it were mlock()'d and thus limited by the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit. However the folios are unevictable and remain so until the inode is evicted, eliminating usual mlock() semantics - mapping folios then unmapping them does not clear their unevictable state, since it depends on AS_UNEVICTABLE, not PG_mlocked. A user can therefore easily work around the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limit - simply map then unmap and VmLck no longer counts the secretmem range. Worse, folios are not accounted in the process's RSS, meaning the OOM killer won't know to kill the process. Repeatedly mapping/unmapping (or forking) can then result in the consumption of all available system memory with unevictable folios and cause system instability. A secretmem fd can be passed between processes and over fork so a per-process limit simply does not make sense, so follow the precedent set by io_uring, perf, skbuff, iommufd and xdp by tracking the number of locked pages in user_struct->locked_vm. Since the scope tracked is actually inode lifetime, the RLIMIT_MEMLOCK applies per-user not per-process, so it doesn't make sense to bypass for users with CAP_IPC_LOCK, therefore remove this bypass. There is simply no reason to carry on marking the mapping as mlock()'d since it's misleading and the lifecycle is now correctly handled, so remove this too. Note that secretmem does not support any form of truncation (including hole punching) and the folios are unreclaimable, so the folios need only be accounted on fault and unaccounted on inode destruction. __secretmem_account_pages() is more or less a duplicate of the code that io_uring etc. use, but since this is a bug fix that needs backporting, defer any de-duplication efforts to a follow-up. test_mlock_limit() asserts mlock_future_ok() on mmap(), however this has been removed, so remove the test altogether for the fix. A new test will be sent separately for upstream. | |
| Title | mm/secretmem: properly account locked pages | |
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| References |
|
Projects
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MITRE
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: Linux
Published:
Updated: 2026-09-24T15:40:27.606Z
Reserved: 2026-09-17T16:02:15.095Z
Link: CVE-2026-93243
Vulnrichment
No data.
NVD
Status : Received
Published: 2026-09-24T16:17:20.230
Modified: 2026-09-24T16:17:20.230
Link: CVE-2026-93243
Redhat
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
No data.
Weaknesses
No weakness.