CVE-2012-5517: The online_pages function in mm/memory_hotplug.c in the Linux kernel before 3.6 allows local users to cause...

Security readout for executives and security teams

This is an old Linux kernel flaw that could let a local user crash a system after an administrator hot-adds memory. It is mainly an availability risk for systems using memory hotplug on kernels before 3.6 or affected vendor backports. Exposure is most likely on legacy Linux systems, virtualized hosts, or specialized servers running kernels before 3.6 or unpatched affected vendor kernels where memory hot-add is used. Prioritize remediation where legacy Linux systems host shared users, virtualization workloads, or memory hot-add operations. For fully patched modern fleets, urgency is low but still warrants asset validation. Mitigation focus: Apply the relevant vendor kernel security update for Ubuntu, Red Hat, or SUSE systems.; Upgrade legacy kernels to a fixed, supported kernel containing the upstream correction.; Check vendor advisories for exact fixed package versions before scheduling maintenance..

Prepared

Jun 24, 2026, 12:04 UTC (UTC+00:00)

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.