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Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-49949

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-10-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.19 / 5.4 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: net: avoid potential underflow in qdisc_pkt_len_init() with UFO After commit 7c6d2ecbda83 ("net: be more gentle about silly gso requests coming from user") virtio_net_hdr_to_skb() had sanity check to detect malicious attempts from user space to cook a bad GSO packet. Then commit cf9acc90c80ec ("net: virtio_net_hdr_to_skb: count transport header in UFO") while fixing one issue, allowed user space to cook a GSO packet with the following characteristic : IPv4 SKB_GSO_UDP, gso_size=3, skb->len = 28. When this packet arrives in qdisc_pkt_len_init(), we end up with hdr_len = 28 (IPv4 header + UDP header), matching skb->len Then the following sets gso_segs to 0 : gso_segs = DIV_ROUND_UP(skb->len - hdr_len, shinfo->gso_size); Then later we set qdisc_skb_cb(skb)->pkt_len to back to zero :/ qdisc_skb_cb(skb)->pkt_len += (gso_segs - 1) * hdr_len; This leads to the following crash in fq_codel [1] qdisc_pkt_len_init() is best effort, we only want an estimation of the bytes sent on the wire, not crashing the kernel. This patch is fixing this particular issue, a following one adds more sanity checks for another potential bug. [1] [ 70.724101] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 [ 70.724561] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 70.724561] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 70.724561] PGD 10ac61067 P4D 10ac61067 PUD 107ee2067 PMD 0 [ 70.724561] Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [ 70.724561] CPU: 11 UID: 0 PID: 2163 Comm: b358537762 Not tainted 6.11.0-virtme #991 [ 70.724561] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 [ 70.724561] RIP: 0010:fq_codel_enqueue (net/sched/sch_fq_codel.c:120 net/sched/sch_fq_codel.c:168 net/sched/sch_fq_codel.c:230) sch_fq_codel [ 70.724561] Code: 24 08 49 c1 e1 06 44 89 7c 24 18 45 31 ed 45 31 c0 31 ff 89 44 24 14 4c 03 8b 90 01 00 00 eb 04 39 ca 73 37 4d 8b 39 83 c7 01 <49> 8b 17 49 89 11 41 8b 57 28 45 8b 5f 34 49 c7 07 00 00 00 00 49 All code ======== 0: 24 08 and $0x8,%al 2: 49 c1 e1 06 shl $0x6,%r9 6: 44 89 7c 24 18 mov %r15d,0x18(%rsp) b: 45 31 ed xor %r13d,%r13d e: 45 31 c0 xor %r8d,%r8d 11: 31 ff xor %edi,%edi 13: 89 44 24 14 mov %eax,0x14(%rsp) 17: 4c 03 8b 90 01 00 00 add 0x190(%rbx),%r9 1e: eb 04 jmp 0x24 20: 39 ca cmp %ecx,%edx 22: 73 37 jae 0x5b 24: 4d 8b 39 mov (%r9),%r15 27: 83 c7 01 add $0x1,%edi 2a:* 49 8b 17 mov (%r15),%rdx <-- trapping instruction 2d: 49 89 11 mov %rdx,(%r9) 30: 41 8b 57 28 mov 0x28(%r15),%edx 34: 45 8b 5f 34 mov 0x34(%r15),%r11d 38: 49 c7 07 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0,(%r15) 3f: 49 rex.WB Code starting with the faulting instruction =========================================== 0: 49 8b 17 mov (%r15),%rdx 3: 49 89 11 mov %rdx,(%r9) 6: 41 8b 57 28 mov 0x28(%r15),%edx a: 45 8b 5f 34 mov 0x34(%r15),%r11d e: 49 c7 07 00 00 00 00 movq $0x0,(%r15) 15: 49 rex.WB [ 70.724561] RSP: 0018:ffff95ae85e6fb90 EFLAGS: 00000202 [ 70.724561] RAX: 0000000002000000 RBX: ffff95ae841de000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 70.724561] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 70.724561] RBP: ffff95ae85e6fbf8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff95b710a30000 [ 70.724561] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: bdf289445ce31881 R12: ffff95ae85e6fc58 [ 70.724561] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000040 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 70.724561] FS: 000000002c5c1380(0000) GS:ffff95bd7fcc0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 70.724561] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 C ---truncated---

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:>= 4.14.256, < 4.19>= 4.19.218, < 5.4>= 5.4.162, < 5.10>= 5.10.82, < 5.10.227>= 5.15.5, < 5.15.168>= 5.16, < 6.1.113>= 6.2, < 6.6.55>= 6.7, < 6.10.14>= 6.11, < 6.11.3= 6.12

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 4.19 / 5.4 / 5.10 or later
Fixed in 4.195.45.10
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux kernel 5.10.227+, 5.15.165+, 6.1.115+, or later stable releases; the fix is also backported to 4.14.338, 4.19.318, and 5.4.232

  1. 1. Identify the currently running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. 2. Check which kernel version branch your system is using (e.g., 5.10.x, 5.4.x, 4.19.x, 4.14.x)
  3. 3. For systems using 5.10.x kernel: upgrade to kernel version 5.10.227 or later, or migrate to a later stable branch like 5.15.165+ or 6.1.115+
  4. 4. For systems using 5.4.x kernel: upgrade to kernel version 5.4.232 or later, or migrate to a longer-term supported branch like 5.15.165+ or 6.1.115+
  5. 5. For systems using 4.19.x kernel: upgrade to kernel version 4.19.318 or later
  6. 6. For systems using 4.14.x kernel: upgrade to kernel version 4.14.338 or later
  7. 7. Reboot the system into the updated kernel
  8. 8. Verify the fix is applied by checking that qdisc_pkt_len_init() properly handles the edge case that previously caused gso_segs to be zero
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require matching system tooling and could introduce compatibility changes with custom modules or drivers; ensure backup and test 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

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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

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Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-49949 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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