# CVE-2026-43286: mm/hugetlb: restore failed global reservations to subpool

> A logic error in Linux kernel hugetlb subpool accounting causes resource exhaustion, preventing future hugepage allocations and leading to 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:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43286, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43286, GHSA-ghpp-gwgc-8pq9, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43286

## What is CVE-2026-43286?

CVE-2026-43286 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. 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: restore failed global reservations to subpool

Commit a833a693a490 ("mm: hugetlb: fix incorrect fallback for subpool")
fixed an underflow error for hstate->resv_huge_pages caused by incorrectly
attributing globally requested pages to the subpool's reservation.

Unfortunately, this fix also introduced the opposite problem, which would
leave spool->used_hpages elevated if the globally requested pages could
not be acquired.  This is because while a subpool's reserve pages only
accounts for what is requested and allocated from the subpool, its "used"
counter keeps track of what is consumed in total, both from the subpool
and globally.  Thus, we need to adjust spool->used_hpages in the other
direction, and make sure that globally requested pages are uncharged from
the subpool's used counter.

Each failed allocation attempt increments the used_hpages counter by how
many pages were requested from the global pool.  Ultimately, this renders
the subpool unusable, as used_hpages approaches the max limit.

The issue can be reproduced as follows:
1. Allocate 4 hugetlb pages
2. Create a hugetlb mount with max=4, min=2
3. Consume 2 pages globally
4. Request 3 pages from the subpool (2 from subpool + 1 from global)
	4.1 hugepage_subpool_get_pages(spool, 3) succeeds.
		used_hpages += 3
	4.2 hugetlb_acct_memory(h, 1) fails: no global pages left
		used_hpages -= 2
5. Subpool now has used_hpages = 1, despite not being able to
   successfully allocate any hugepages. It believes it can now only
   allocate 3 more hugepages, not 4.

With each failed allocation attempt incrementing the used counter, the
subpool eventually reaches a point where its used counter equals its
max counter.  At that point, any future allocations that try to
allocate hugeTLB pages from the subpool will fail, despite the subpool
not having any of its hugeTLB pages consumed by any user.

Once this happens, there is no way to make the subpool usable again,
since there is no way to decrement the used counter as no process is
really consuming the hugeTLB pages.

The underflow issue that the original commit fixes still remains fixed
as well.

Without this fix, used_hpages would keep on leaking if
hugetlb_acct_memory() fails.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43286?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43286?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43286 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43286 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-2026-43286 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43286 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. 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-2026-43286 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-2026-43286/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43286/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43286
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43286
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43286

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43286/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.