Findings

Vulnerability · CVE-2026-93243

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 w…

Published Sep 24, 2026 · corrected/updated Oct 15, 2026 · evidence confidence high

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

Grounded briefings

Catalog interpretations for three audiences. Each brief cites ingested metadata and the original advisories below. They are not independent research and they do not invent exploit steps.

Executive

CVE-2026-93243 is a unknown public vulnerability record for this product. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. This summary is a catalog interpretation of the ingested metadata and cites the original advisories below.

System administrator

Identify whether this product is in your estate, then compare installed versions with the affected ranges. Affected version ranges have not been ingested yet. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. Prefer the vendor or distribution advisory linked in Sources before changing production systems. This is a catalog interpretation, not a runbook.

Security analyst

Signals on file: EPSS 0.2%. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Sources contributing to this record: cve_org, epss, nvd. Public exploit references, when present, are outbound links only and are not proof of active exploitation. This is a catalog interpretation of stored metadata.

Exploitation and remediation

  • Exploitation evidence

    Not listed as known exploited in CISA KEV. Not in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV.

  • Patch and remediation

    No required-action text is stored yet. Use the vendor or CERT links in Sources for patch availability.

  • Safe detection guidance

    Compare installed versions with the affected ranges below and verify the advisory from the original publisher. This site stores metadata and outbound links only; it does not ship exploit code or proof-of-concept payloads.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Sep 24, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    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 un

  2. Oct 15, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    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 un

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-93243

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2026-93243

    30-day exploitation probability 0.2%

    first.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-93243

    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 u

    nvd.nist.gov

References