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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-36903

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.15 / 4.20 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: Fix potential uninit-value access in __ip6_make_skb() As it was done in commit fc1092f51567 ("ipv4: Fix uninit-value access in __ip_make_skb()") for IPv4, check FLOWI_FLAG_KNOWN_NH on fl6->flowi6_flags instead of testing HDRINCL on the socket to avoid a race condition which causes uninit-value access.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-908

Memory or a resource is used before it has been initialised, so its contents are whatever happened to be there — sometimes leaking earlier data, sometimes values an attacker can influence. Behaviour becomes unpredictable and occasionally exploitable. Remediation is initialising every resource before use and ensuring initialisation happens on all code paths.

General guidance for the use of uninitialized resource class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:>= 4.14.313, < 4.15>= 4.19.281, < 4.20>= 5.4.241, < 5.5>= 5.10.178, < 5.11>= 5.15.107, < 5.16>= 6.1.24, < 6.2>= 6.2.11, < 6.6.31>= 6.7, < 6.8.10= 6.9

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 4.15 / 4.20 / 5.5 or later
Fixed in 4.154.205.5
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel 4.15 (or later for 4.14.x), 4.20 (or later for 4.19.x), 5.5 (or later for 5.4.x), or 5.11 (or later for 5.10.x) depending on your current branch

  1. Identify the currently running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Obtain the patched kernel version for your distribution. The fix is included in: 4.15, 4.20, 5.5, and 5.11 (or later stable releases)
  3. For RHEL/CentOS systems, check if a kernel update is available: `yum check-update kernel` or `dnf check-update kernel`
  4. For Debian/Ubuntu systems, update package lists: `apt update` and check for kernel updates: `apt list --upgradable | grep linux-image`
  5. Apply the vendor patch directly if using a custom kernel: fetch commit 2367bf254f3a27ecc6e229afd7a8b0a1395f7be3 from git.kernel.org/stable and apply it to your kernel source tree
  6. Reboot the system into the patched kernel: `systemctl reboot` after installing the update
  7. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and confirming the patch is present in the running kernel's source
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require driver/compatibility verification; ensure critical modules are compatible with the new kernel version before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-36903 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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