CVE-2014-8173 Null dereference in n/a

What is CVE-2014-8173?

CVE-2014-8173 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Mar 2015. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The pmd_none_or_trans_huge_or_clear_bad function in include/asm-generic/pgtable.h in the Linux kernel before 3.13 on NUMA systems does not properly determine whether a Page Middle Directory (PMD) entry is a transparent huge-table entry, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and system crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted MADV_WILLNEED madvise system call that leverages the absence of a page-table lock.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2014-8173?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2014-8173?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

Is CVE-2014-8173 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2014-8173 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2014-8173, GHSA-j9vf-fgh2-x3qm.