CVE-2017-18208

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2018-03-01 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-835

Description

The madvise_willneed function in mm/madvise.c in the Linux kernel before 4.14.4 allows local users to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) by triggering use of MADVISE_WILLNEED for a DAX mapping.

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 4.14.4 — fixed in 4.14.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.14.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=6ea8d958a2c95a1d514015d4e29ba21a8c0a1a91
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2948
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3083
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3096
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:3967
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:4057
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:4058
https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/6ea8d958a2c95a1d514015d4e29ba21a8c0a1a91
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3619-1/
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3619-2/
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3653-1/
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3653-2/

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