# CVE-2024-40949: mm: shmem: fix getting incorrect lruvec when replacing a shmem folio

> A flaw in the Linux kernel's shmem handling can cause LRU list crashes and incorrect statistics, leading to system instability or denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 12 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-40949, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-40949, GHSA-c3vj-49c5-5wp9, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-40949

## What is CVE-2024-40949?

CVE-2024-40949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Jul 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm: shmem: fix getting incorrect lruvec when replacing a shmem folio

When testing shmem swapin, I encountered the warning below on my machine. 
The reason is that replacing an old shmem folio with a new one causes
mem_cgroup_migrate() to clear the old folio's memcg data.  As a result,
the old folio cannot get the correct memcg's lruvec needed to remove
itself from the LRU list when it is being freed.  This could lead to
possible serious problems, such as LRU list crashes due to holding the
wrong LRU lock, and incorrect LRU statistics.

To fix this issue, we can fallback to use the mem_cgroup_replace_folio()
to replace the old shmem folio.

[ 5241.100311] page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x5d9960
[ 5241.100317] head: order:4 mapcount:0 entire_mapcount:0 nr_pages_mapped:0 pincount:0
[ 5241.100319] flags: 0x17fffe0000040068(uptodate|lru|head|swapbacked|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x3ffff)
[ 5241.100323] raw: 17fffe0000040068 fffffdffd6687948 fffffdffd69ae008 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100325] raw: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100326] head: 17fffe0000040068 fffffdffd6687948 fffffdffd69ae008 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100327] head: 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100328] head: 17fffe0000000204 fffffdffd6665801 ffffffffffffffff 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100329] head: 0000000a00000010 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000
[ 5241.100330] page dumped because: VM_WARN_ON_ONCE_FOLIO(!memcg && !mem_cgroup_disabled())
[ 5241.100338] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[ 5241.100339] WARNING: CPU: 19 PID: 78402 at include/linux/memcontrol.h:775 folio_lruvec_lock_irqsave+0x140/0x150
[...]
[ 5241.100374] pc : folio_lruvec_lock_irqsave+0x140/0x150
[ 5241.100375] lr : folio_lruvec_lock_irqsave+0x138/0x150
[ 5241.100376] sp : ffff80008b38b930
[...]
[ 5241.100398] Call trace:
[ 5241.100399]  folio_lruvec_lock_irqsave+0x140/0x150
[ 5241.100401]  __page_cache_release+0x90/0x300
[ 5241.100404]  __folio_put+0x50/0x108
[ 5241.100406]  shmem_replace_folio+0x1b4/0x240
[ 5241.100409]  shmem_swapin_folio+0x314/0x528
[ 5241.100411]  shmem_get_folio_gfp+0x3b4/0x930
[ 5241.100412]  shmem_fault+0x74/0x160
[ 5241.100414]  __do_fault+0x40/0x218
[ 5241.100417]  do_shared_fault+0x34/0x1b0
[ 5241.100419]  do_fault+0x40/0x168
[ 5241.100420]  handle_pte_fault+0x80/0x228
[ 5241.100422]  __handle_mm_fault+0x1c4/0x440
[ 5241.100424]  handle_mm_fault+0x60/0x1f0
[ 5241.100426]  do_page_fault+0x120/0x488
[ 5241.100429]  do_translation_fault+0x4c/0x68
[ 5241.100431]  do_mem_abort+0x48/0xa0
[ 5241.100434]  el0_da+0x38/0xc0
[ 5241.100436]  el0t_64_sync_handler+0x68/0xc0
[ 5241.100437]  el0t_64_sync+0x14c/0x150
[ 5241.100439] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

[baolin.wang@linux.alibaba.com: remove less helpful comments, per Matthew]

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-40949?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-40949?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-40949 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-40949 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-40949 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-40949 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Jul 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-40949 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-40949/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-40949/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-40949
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-40949
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-40949

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-40949/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.