Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-43819

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-08-17
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.10.3 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: kvm: s390: Reject memory region operations for ucontrol VMs This change rejects the KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION and KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION2 ioctls when called on a ucontrol VM. This is necessary since ucontrol VMs have kvm->arch.gmap set to 0 and would thus result in a null pointer dereference further in. Memory management needs to be performed in userspace and using the ioctls KVM_S390_UCAS_MAP and KVM_S390_UCAS_UNMAP. Also improve s390 specific documentation for KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION and KVM_SET_USER_MEMORY_REGION2. [[email protected]: commit message spelling fix, subject prefix fix]

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-476

The code follows a pointer that is null, crashing the process. An attacker who can reliably trigger it turns the crash into a denial of service. The fix is checking for null before use and handling the failure path gracefully.

General guidance for the null pointer dereference 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:>= 3.4, < 6.10.3

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 6.10.3 or later
Fixed in 6.10.3
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.10.3 or later (e.g., 6.10.4, 6.11.x, or latest stable)

  1. 1. Identify all systems running Linux Kernel versions >= 3.4 and < 6.10.3 that use KVM s390 (IBM System z) virtualization
  2. 2. Schedule a maintenance window for the affected systems
  3. 3. Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 6.10.3 or later (e.g., 6.10.4, 6.11, or the latest stable release)
  4. 4. For systems that cannot immediately upgrade, apply the vendor patch from https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/49c9945c054df4c22008e2bf87ca74d3e2507aa6 and rebuild the kernel
  5. 5. Reboot the systems to load the patched kernel
  6. 6. Verify the fix is active by checking kernel version (uname -r) and testing KVM functionality on s390
Caveat Upgrading the kernel may require reboot and could introduce compatibility issues with custom kernel modules or specific userland configurations; ensure testing in non-production environment first

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 $2,850. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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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-2024-43819 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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