The Linux kernel suffered a race condition in the page table dump (ptdump) workflow. During a ptdump operation, the kernel can free page tables while another MMA‑mm is reading them if the init_mm lock is not held. This could allow a malicious process to read or manipulate freed memory, leading to kernel corruption, denial of service or privilege escalation. The underlying weakness is a synchronization failure between concurrent kernel operations.

Vendors: Linux. The affected component is the Linux kernel, including architectures x86 and arm64 for which ptdump over non‑init_mm memory tables is possible. The advisory does not specify a particular major version, but the fix is present in the latest stable kernel releases containing the highlighted commits.

The advisory includes an EPSS score of < 1%, indicating a very low estimated exploitation probability. The CVSS score is 5.5, which denotes a medium severity. The vulnerability is not listed in CISA’s KEV catalog. Attackers would need local kernel access to trigger the race, typically by running privileged code to initiate a ptdump while another process frees page tables. No public exploitation has been reported and the fix applies a proper lock to prevent the race, eliminating the flaw.