Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2024-42304
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 · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: make sure the first directory block is not a hole The syzbot constructs a directory that has no dirblock but is non-inline, i.e. the first directory block is a hole. And no errors are reported when creating files in this directory in the following flow. ext4_mknod ... ext4_add_entry // Read block 0 ext4_read_dirblock(dir, block, DIRENT) bh = ext4_bread(NULL, inode, block, 0) if (!bh && (type == INDEX || type == DIRENT_HTREE)) // The first directory block is a hole // But type == DIRENT, so no error is reported. After that, we get a directory block without '.' and '..' but with a valid dentry. This may cause some code that relies on dot or dotdot (such as make_indexed_dir()) to crash. Therefore when ext4_read_dirblock() finds that the first directory block is a hole report that the filesystem is corrupted and return an error to avoid loading corrupted data from disk causing something bad.
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 analysisA detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.
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
>= 4.9.187, < 4.10>= 4.14.135, < 4.15>= 4.19.62, < 4.19.320>= 5.1.21, < 5.2>= 5.2.4, < 5.4.282>= 5.5, < 5.10.224>= 5.11, < 5.15.165>= 5.16, < 6.1.103>= 6.2, < 6.6.44>= 6.7, < 6.10.3CVSS 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 · scoped4.104.154.19.320
Upgrade to the next stable release in your kernel branch: 4.10+ for 4.9.x, 4.15+ for 4.14.x, 4.19.320+ for 4.19.x, or 5.2+ for 5.1.x; or move to a newer stable branch like 5.4 LTS, 5.10 LTS, 6.1 LTS, or 6.6 LTS
- Identify your current kernel version using 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version'
- For kernels 4.9.x (>=4.9.187): Upgrade to kernel 4.10 or later (e.g., 4.10.0 or later stable release)
- For kernels 4.14.x (>=4.14.135): Upgrade to kernel 4.15 or later (e.g., 4.15.0 or later stable release)
- For kernels 4.19.x (>=4.19.62, <4.19.320): Upgrade to kernel 4.19.320 or later (e.g., 4.19.320 or later stable release)
- For kernels 5.1.x (>=5.1.21, <5.2): Upgrade to kernel 5.2 or later (e.g., 5.2.0 or later stable release)
- After upgrade, verify the fix is present by checking the kernel config includes ext4 support and the running kernel is the updated version
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-42304 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-42304 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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