NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting perf6.18-debuginfo package, versions <1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023
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Start learning- Snyk IDSNYK-AMZN2023-PERF618DEBUGINFO-16350117
- published3 May 2026
- disclosed3 Apr 2026
Introduced: 3 Apr 2026
CVE-2026-31397 (opens in a new tab)How to fix?
Upgrade Amazon-Linux:2023 perf6.18-debuginfo to version 1:6.18.20-20.229.amzn2023 or higher.
This issue was patched in ALAS2023-2026-1596.
NVD Description
Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream perf6.18-debuginfo package and not the perf6.18-debuginfo package as distributed by Amazon-Linux.
See How to fix? for Amazon-Linux:2023 relevant fixed versions and status.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/huge_memory: fix use of NULL folio in move_pages_huge_pmd()
move_pages_huge_pmd() handles UFFDIO_MOVE for both normal THPs and huge zero pages. For the huge zero page path, src_folio is explicitly set to NULL, and is used as a sentinel to skip folio operations like lock and rmap.
In the huge zero page branch, src_folio is NULL, so folio_mk_pmd(NULL, pgprot) passes NULL through folio_pfn() and page_to_pfn(). With SPARSEMEM_VMEMMAP this silently produces a bogus PFN, installing a PMD pointing to non-existent physical memory. On other memory models it is a NULL dereference.
Use page_folio(src_page) to obtain the valid huge zero folio from the page, which was obtained from pmd_page() and remains valid throughout.
After commit d82d09e48219 ("mm/huge_memory: mark PMD mappings of the huge zero folio special"), moved huge zero PMDs must remain special so vm_normal_page_pmd() continues to treat them as special mappings.
move_pages_huge_pmd() currently reconstructs the destination PMD in the huge zero page branch, which drops PMD state such as pmd_special() on architectures with CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_PTE_SPECIAL. As a result, vm_normal_page_pmd() can treat the moved huge zero PMD as a normal page and corrupt its refcount.
Instead of reconstructing the PMD from the folio, derive the destination entry from src_pmdval after pmdp_huge_clear_flush(), then handle the PMD metadata the same way move_huge_pmd() does for moved entries by marking it soft-dirty and clearing uffd-wp.