// For flags

CVE-2022-50675

arm64: mte: Avoid setting PG_mte_tagged if no tags cleared or restored

Severity Score

5.5
*CVSS v3

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

0
*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

-
*KEV

Decision

-
*SSVC
Descriptions

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()).

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()).

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
None
* Common Vulnerability Scoring System
SSVC
  • Decision:-
Exploitation
-
Automatable
-
Tech. Impact
-
* Organization's Worst-case Scenario
Timeline
  • 2025-12-09 CVE Reserved
  • 2025-12-09 CVE Published
  • 2025-12-09 CVE Updated
  • 2026-01-10 EPSS Updated
  • ---------- Exploited in Wild
  • ---------- KEV Due Date
  • ---------- First Exploit
CWE
CAPEC
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor Product Version Other Status
Vendor Product Version Other Status <-- --> Vendor Product Version Other Status
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 5.14 < 5.15.82
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 5.14 < 5.15.82"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 5.14 < 6.0.3
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 5.14 < 6.0.3"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 5.14 < 6.1
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 5.14 < 6.1"
en
Affected