In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
arm64: mte: Avoid setting PG_mte_tagged if no tags cleared or restored
Prior to commit 69e3b846d8a7 ("arm64: mte: Sync tags for pages where PTE is untagged"), mte_sync_tags() was only called for pte_tagged() entries (those mapped with PROT_MTE). Therefore mte_sync_tags() could safely use test_and_set_bit(PG_mte_tagged, &page->flags) without inadvertently setting PG_mte_tagged on an untagged page.
The above commit was required as guests may enable MTE without any control at the stage 2 mapping, nor a PROT_MTE mapping in the VMM. However, the side-effect was that any page with a PTE that looked like swap (or migration) was getting PG_mte_tagged set automatically. A subsequent page copy (e.g. migration) copied the tags to the destination page even if the tags were owned by KASAN.
This issue was masked by the page_kasan_tag_reset() call introduced in commit e5b8d9218951 ("arm64: mte: reset the page tag in page->flags"). When this commit was reverted (20794545c146), KASAN started reporting access faults because the overriding tags in a page did not match the original page->flags (with CONFIG_KASAN_HW_TAGS=y):
BUG: KASAN: invalid-access in copy_page+0x10/0xd0 arch/arm64/lib/copy_page.S:26 Read at addr f5ff000017f2e000 by task syz-executor.1/2218 Pointer tag: [f5], memory tag: [f2]
Move the PG_mte_tagged bit setting from mte_sync_tags() to the actual place where tags are cleared (mte_sync_page_tags()) or restored (mte_restore_tags()).
Covered by Rapid7
| Product | Vendor Advisory | Solution File | Added | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux Ami 2 | — | Upgrade python-perfUpgrade kernel-tools-develUpgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64Upgrade kernel-toolsUpgrade bpftoolUpgrade kernelUpgrade kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64Upgrade bpftool-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-livepatch-5.15.86-53.137Upgrade perf-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-develUpgrade kernel-debuginfoUpgrade python-perf-debuginfoUpgrade kernel-tools-debuginfoUpgrade perfUpgrade kernel-headers | May 20, 2026 | May 20, 2026 |
| Debian | — | Upgrade linux | Dec 10, 2025 | Dec 10, 2025 |
| Redhat_linux | — | No solution exists | Jul 17, 2026 | Dec 9, 2025 |
| Ubuntu | — | Upgrade linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15Upgrade linux-intel-iotg-5.15Upgrade linux-realtimeUpgrade linux-raspiUpgrade linux-azureUpgrade linux-riscv-5.15Upgrade linux-aws-5.15Upgrade linux-intel-iot-realtimeUpgrade linux-hwe-5.15Upgrade linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15Upgrade linux-intel-iotgUpgrade linux-gcpUpgrade linux-kvmUpgrade linux-awsUpgrade linux-bluefieldUpgrade linux-gcp-5.15Upgrade linux-azure-5.15Upgrade linuxUpgrade linux-oracleUpgrade linux-gkeopUpgrade linux-lowlatencyUpgrade linux-oracle-5.15Upgrade linux-nvidiaUpgrade linux-gkeUpgrade linux-ibm | Dec 11, 2025 | Dec 9, 2025 |
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