CVE-2024-53065 mm/slab: fix warning caused by duplicate kmem_cache creation in kmem_buckets_create

Medium 5.5 Published 19 Nov 2024 Updated 11 May 2026

A kernel bug causes boot warnings and potential instability when KASAN_HW_TAGS is enabled on arm64 due to duplicate slab cache creation.

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

What is CVE-2024-53065?

CVE-2024-53065 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 Nov 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/slab: fix warning caused by duplicate kmem_cache creation in kmem_buckets_create

Commit b035f5a6d852 ("mm: slab: reduce the kmalloc() minimum alignment if DMA bouncing possible") reduced ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN to 8 on arm64. However, with KASAN_HW_TAGS enabled, arch_slab_minalign() becomes 16. This causes kmalloc_caches[*][8] to be aliased to kmalloc_caches[*][16], resulting in kmem_buckets_create() attempting to create a kmem_cache for size 16 twice. This duplication triggers warnings on boot:

[ 2.325108] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 2.325135] kmem_cache of name 'memdup_user-16' already exists [ 2.325783] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1 at mm/slab_common.c:107 __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.327957] Modules linked in: [ 2.328550] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.12.0-rc5mm-unstable-arm64+ #12 [ 2.328683] Hardware name: QEMU QEMU Virtual Machine, BIOS 2024.02-2 03/11/2024 [ 2.328790] pstate: 61000009 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 2.328911] pc : __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.328930] lr : __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.328942] sp : ffff800083d6fc50 [ 2.328961] x29: ffff800083d6fc50 x28: f2ff0000c1674410 x27: ffff8000820b0598 [ 2.329061] x26: 000000007fffffff x25: 0000000000000010 x24: 0000000000002000 [ 2.329101] x23: ffff800083d6fce8 x22: ffff8000832222e8 x21: ffff800083222388 [ 2.329118] x20: f2ff0000c1674410 x19: f5ff0000c16364c0 x18: ffff800083d80030 [ 2.329135] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 [ 2.329152] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0a73747369786520 x12: 79646165726c6120 [ 2.329169] x11: 656820747563205b x10: 2d2d2d2d2d2d2d2d x9 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.329194] x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.329210] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.329226] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.329291] Call trace: [ 2.329407] __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.329499] kmem_buckets_create+0xfc/0x320 [ 2.329526] init_user_buckets+0x34/0x78 [ 2.329540] do_one_initcall+0x64/0x3c8 [ 2.329550] kernel_init_freeable+0x26c/0x578 [ 2.329562] kernel_init+0x3c/0x258 [ 2.329574] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 2.329698] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

[ 2.403704] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 2.404716] kmem_cache of name 'msg_msg-16' already exists [ 2.404801] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 1 at mm/slab_common.c:107 __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.404842] Modules linked in: [ 2.404971] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G W 6.12.0-rc5mm-unstable-arm64+ #12 [ 2.405026] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 2.405043] Hardware name: QEMU QEMU Virtual Machine, BIOS 2024.02-2 03/11/2024 [ 2.405057] pstate: 60400009 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 2.405079] pc : __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.405100] lr : __kmem_cache_create_args+0xb8/0x3b0 [ 2.405111] sp : ffff800083d6fc50 [ 2.405115] x29: ffff800083d6fc50 x28: fbff0000c1674410 x27: ffff8000820b0598 [ 2.405135] x26: 000000000000ffd0 x25: 0000000000000010 x24: 0000000000006000 [ 2.405153] x23: ffff800083d6fce8 x22: ffff8000832222e8 x21: ffff800083222388 [ 2.405169] x20: fbff0000c1674410 x19: fdff0000c163d6c0 x18: ffff800083d80030 [ 2.405185] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 [ 2.405201] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0a73747369786520 x12: 79646165726c6120 [ 2.405217] x11: 656820747563205b x10: 2d2d2d2d2d2d2d2d x9 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.405233] x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.405248] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.405271] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 2.405287] Call trace: [ 2 ---truncated---

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53065?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-53065?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2024-53065 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53065 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-53065, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-53065, GHSA-56wh-6gx4-4442, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53065.