CVE-2026-64180: mm/memory_hotplug: fix memory block reference leak on remove

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-07-19 · updated 2026-08-12

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/memory_hotplug: fix memory block reference leak on remove Patch series "mm: Fix memory block leaks and locking", v2. This series fixes two memory block device reference leaks and one locking issue around the per-memory_block hwpoison counter. This patch (of 2): remove_memory_blocks_and_altmaps() looks up each memory block with find_memory_block(), which acquires a reference to the memory block device. That reference is never dropped on this path, resulting in a leaked device reference when removing memory blocks and their altmaps. Drop the reference after retrieving mem->altmap and clearing mem->altmap, before removing the memory block device.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 6.8 before 6.12.92; from 6.13 before 6.18.34; from 6.19 before 7.0.11; 7.1-rc1, 7.1-rc2, 7.1-rc3, 7.1-rc4 — fixed in 6.12.92, 6.18.34, 7.0.11

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.12.92, 6.18.34, 7.0.11. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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