Linux Kernel up to 6.18.15/6.19.5 hugetlb hugetlb_acct_memory allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.15/6.19.5 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function hugetlb_acct_memory of the component hugetlb. The manipulation results in allocation of resources. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-43286. There is no available exploit. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.15/6.19.5. It has been classified as critical. Affected is the function hugetlb_acct_memory of the component hugetlb. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: restore failed global reservations to subpool Commit a833a693a490 ("mm: hugetlb: fix incorrect fallback for subpool") fixed an underflow error for hstate->resv_huge_pages caused by incorrectly attributing globally requested pages to the subpool's reservation. Unfortunately, this fix also introduced the opposite problem, which would leave spool->used_hpages elevated if the globally requested pages could not be acquired. This is because while a subpool's reserve pages only accounts for what is requested and allocated from the subpool, its "used" counter keeps track of what is consumed in total, both from the subpool and globally. Thus, we need to adjust spool->used_hpages in the other direction, and make sure that globally requested pages are uncharged from the subpool's used counter. Each failed allocation attempt increments the used_hpages counter by how many pages were requested from the global pool. Ultimately, this renders the subpool unusable, as used_hpages approaches the max limit. The issue can be reproduced as follows: 1. Allocate 4 hugetlb pages 2. Create a hugetlb mount with max=4, min=2 3. Consume 2 pages globally 4. Request 3 pages from the subpool (2 from subpool + 1 from global) 4.1 hugepage_subpool_get_pages(spool, 3) succeeds. used_hpages += 3 4.2 hugetlb_acct_memory(h, 1) fails: no global pages left used_hpages -= 2 5. Subpool now has used_hpages = 1, despite not being able to successfully allocate any hugepages. It believes it can now only allocate 3 more hugepages, not 4. With each failed allocation attempt incrementing the used counter, the subpool eventually reaches a point where its used counter equals its max counter. At that point, any future allocations that try to allocate hugeTLB pages from the subpool will fail, despite the subpool not having any of its hugeTLB pages consumed by any user. Once this happens, there is no way to make the subpool usable again, since there is no way to decrement the used counter as no process is really consuming the hugeTLB pages. The underflow issue that the original commit fixes still remains fixed as well. Without this fix, used_hpages would keep on leaking if hugetlb_acct_memory() fails.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-43286 since 05/01/2026. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.18.16 or 6.19.6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 5eac1322a7b14b8cd05ec896618278b90fba7f39/f055897c975d079a90af873c791ab58cf0f6f2a5/1d3f9bb4c8af70304d19c22e30f5d16a2d589bb5 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1454). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Microsoft Azure Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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