# CVE-2024-49964: mm/hugetlb: fix memfd_pin_folios free_huge_pages leak

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel's hugetlb subsystem can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 21 Oct 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-49964, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-49964, GHSA-r5f6-w2pg-mf93, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-49964

## What is CVE-2024-49964?

CVE-2024-49964 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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/hugetlb: fix memfd_pin_folios free_huge_pages leak

memfd_pin_folios followed by unpin_folios fails to restore free_huge_pages
if the pages were not already faulted in, because the folio refcount for
pages created by memfd_alloc_folio never goes to 0.  memfd_pin_folios
needs another folio_put to undo the folio_try_get below:

memfd_alloc_folio()
  alloc_hugetlb_folio_nodemask()
    dequeue_hugetlb_folio_nodemask()
      dequeue_hugetlb_folio_node_exact()
        folio_ref_unfreeze(folio, 1);    ; adds 1 refcount
  folio_try_get()                        ; adds 1 refcount
  hugetlb_add_to_page_cache()            ; adds 512 refcount (on x86)

With the fix, after memfd_pin_folios + unpin_folios, the refcount for the
(unfaulted) page is 512, which is correct, as the refcount for a faulted
unpinned page is 513.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-49964?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-49964?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-49964 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-49964 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-2024-49964 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-49964 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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-2024-49964 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-2024-49964/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-49964/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-49964
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-49964
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-49964

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-49964/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.