CVE-2026-43389

CVE-2026-43389 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel with a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low.

Key facts

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: memfd_luo: always dirty all folios A dirty folio is one which has been written to. A clean folio is its opposite. Since a clean folio has no user data, it can be freed under memory pressure. memfd preservation with LUO saves the flag at preserve(). This is problematic. The folio might get dirtied later. Saving it at freeze() also doesn't work, since the dirty bit from PTE is normally synced at unmap and there might still be mappings of the file at freeze(). To see why this is a problem, say a folio is clean at preserve, but gets dirtied later. The serialized state of the folio will mark it as clean. After retrieve, the next kernel will see the folio as clean and might try to reclaim it under memory pressure. This will result in losing user data. Mark all folios of the file as dirty, and always set the MEMFD_LUO_FOLIO_DIRTY flag. This comes with the side effect of making all clean folios un-reclaimable. This is a cost that has to be paid for participants of live update. It is not expected to be a common use case to preserve a lot of clean folios anyway. Since the value of pfolio->flags is a constant now, drop the flags variable and set it directly.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-43389?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm: memfd_luo: always dirty all folios A dirty folio is one which has been written to. A clean folio is its opposite. Since a clean folio has no user data, it can be freed under memory pressure. memfd preservation with LUO saves the flag at preserve(). This is problematic. The folio might get dirtied later. Saving it at freeze() also doesn't work, since the dirty bit from PTE is normally synced at unmap and there might still be mappings of the file at freeze(). To see why this is a problem, say a folio is clean at preserve, but gets dirtied later. The serialized state of the folio will mark it as clean. After retrieve, the next kernel will see the folio as clean and might try to reclaim it under memory pressure. This will result in losing user data. Mark all folios of the file as dirty, and always set the MEMFD_LUO_FOLIO_DIRTY flag. This comes with the side effect of making all clean folios un-reclaimable. This is a cost that has to be paid for participants of live update. It is not expected to be a common use case to preserve a lot of clean folios anyway. Since the value of pfolio->flags is a constant now, drop the flags variable and set it directly.
How severe is CVE-2026-43389?
CVE-2026-43389 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2026-43389 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (1st percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2026-43389?
CVE-2026-43389 primarily affects Linux Linux Kernel. In total, 4 product configurations (CPEs) are listed as vulnerable; see the affected-products list for the exact versions.
How do I fix CVE-2026-43389?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2026-43389 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2026-43389 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2026-28695.
When was CVE-2026-43389 published?
CVE-2026-43389 was published on 2026-05-08 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (4)

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