The Linux kernel through 3.14.5 does not properly consider the presence of hugetlb entries, which allows local users to cause a denial of s…

published 2014-06-05 12 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2014-3877

cvss: 4.0; version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.3%; EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 19%
public exploits: 0; none known

The Linux kernel through 3.14.5 does not properly consider the presence of hugetlb entries, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption or system crash) by accessing certain memory locations, as demonstrated by triggering a race condition via numa_maps read operations during hugepage migration, related to fs/proc/task_mmu.c and mm/mempolicy.c.

Patch / fix

distros 3

debian ubuntu red hat

linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.14.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2014-3940

linux Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 3.13.0-32.57

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2014-3940

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

kernel RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
python-perf RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
kernel-kdump RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
kernel-firmware RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
kernel-abi-whitelists RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6
kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 RHEL 6 2.6.32-573.el6

red hat advisories RHSA-2015:1272 RHSA-2015:0290 RHSA-2014:0913

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2014-3940 updated 2026-11-05 cvss 4.7

Kernel: missing check during hugepage migration

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) python-perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) python-perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:0290
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-kdump 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-bootwrapper 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-573.el6, +4 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1272
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-bootwrapper 3.10.0-229.el7, +4 more
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:0290
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1272
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) python-perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-s390x 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:0290
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-firmware 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-abi-whitelists 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1272
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-abi-whitelists 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:0290
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) python-perf 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-i686 2.6.32-573.el6, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 2.6.32-573.el6
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:1272

show 3 more

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) python-perf 3.10.0-229.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-229.el7
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2015:0290
Red Hat MRG Realtime for RHEL 6 Server v.2 kernel-rt 3.10.33-rt32.43.el6rt, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.33-rt32.43.el6rt, kernel-rt-vanilla 3.10.33-rt32.43.el6rt, kernel-rt-firmware 3.10.33-rt32.43.el6rt, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.33-rt32.43.el6rt
fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2014:0913
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 19% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	2.0	4.0	AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

rhn.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2015-0290.html
vendor-advisory
rhn.redhat.com /errata/RHSA-2015-1272.html
vendor-advisory
bugzilla.redhat.com /show_bug.cgi?id=1104097
secunia.com /advisories/59011
third-party-advisory
lkml.org /lkml/2014/3/18/784
mailing-list
support.f5.com /kb/en-us/solutions/public/15000/600/sol15685.html
openwall.com /lists/oss-security/2014/06/02/5
mailing-list
securityfocus.com /bid/67786
vdb-entry
secunia.com /advisories/61310
third-party-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2014-3940
NVD CVE-2014-3940

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary