Kernel memory corruption via wrong THP queue lock
Published Nov 19, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Race condition in the Linux kernel allows local users to corrupt kernel memory or halt affected systems through transparent huge-page pressure. During swapout, mem_cgroup_swapout clears folio->memcg_data before removing a THP from its deferred split list, so later cleanup uses the pgdat lock instead of the list's memcg lock. An unprivileged local process can race partial THP unmapping with memory pressure when memory cgroups are enabled, causing a panic, hard lockup, or cross-context memory access.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in the Linux kernel allows local users to corrupt kernel memory or halt affected systems through transparent huge-page pressure. During swapout, mem_cgroup_swapout clears folio->memcg_data before removing a THP from its deferred split list, so later cleanup uses the pgdat lock instead of the list's memcg lock. An unprivileged local process can race partial THP unmapping with memory pressure when memory cgroups are enabled, causing a panic, hard lockup, or cross-context memory access.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-53079
- Published
- Nov 19, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-667, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 19, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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- Affected versionversion=5.4
- Affected versionversion=87eaceb3faa59b9b4d940ec9554ce251325d83fe <afb1352d06b1b6b2cfd1f901c766a430c87078b3
- Affected versionversion=87eaceb3faa59b9b4d940ec9554ce251325d83fe <f8f931bba0f92052cf842b7e30917b1afcc77d5a
- Affected versionversion=87eaceb3faa59b9b4d940ec9554ce251325d83fe <fc4951c3e3358dd82ea508e893695b916c813f17
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Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Technologies
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