Description
Memory leak in the __kvm_set_memory_region function in virt/kvm/kvm_main.c in the Linux kernel before 3.9 allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) by leveraging certain device access to trigger movement of memory slots.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | linux | 3.8-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 3.8-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | 3.8-1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 6 | perf +16 | 2.6.32-431.el6 | RHSA-2013:1645 |
Advisories 1
- RHSA-2013:1645 Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 kernel update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 28, 2026
References
- openSUSE-SU-2014:0247 vendor-advisory
- USN-2115-1 vendor-advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1031702
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=12d6e7538e2d418c08f082b1b44ffa5fb7270ed8
- USN-2116-1 vendor-advisory
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/e40f193f5bb022e927a57a4f5d5194e4f12ddb74
- USN-2114-1 vendor-advisory
- RHSA-2013:1645 vendor-advisory
- http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e40f193f5bb022e927a57a4f5d5194e4f12ddb74
- USN-2112-1 vendor-advisory
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/12d6e7538e2d418c08f082b1b44ffa5fb7270ed8
- USN-2066-1 vendor-advisory
- USN-2111-1 vendor-advisory
- USN-2067-1 vendor-advisory
- https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/patch-3.9.bz2
- [oss-security] 20131118 CVE-2013-4592 -- Linux kernel: kvm: memory leak when memory slot is moved with assigned device mailing-list