Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-50194

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.19.323 / 5.4.285 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: arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels The arm64 uprobes code is broken for big-endian kernels as it doesn't convert the in-memory instruction encoding (which is always little-endian) into the kernel's native endianness before analyzing and simulating instructions. This may result in a few distinct problems: * The kernel may may erroneously reject probing an instruction which can safely be probed. * The kernel may erroneously erroneously permit stepping an instruction out-of-line when that instruction cannot be stepped out-of-line safely. * The kernel may erroneously simulate instruction incorrectly dur to interpretting the byte-swapped encoding. The endianness mismatch isn't caught by the compiler or sparse because: * The arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields are encoded as arrays of u8, so the compiler and sparse have no idea these contain a little-endian 32-bit value. The core uprobes code populates these with a memcpy() which similarly does not handle endianness. * While the uprobe_opcode_t type is an alias for __le32, both arch_uprobe_analyze_insn() and arch_uprobe_skip_sstep() cast from u8[] to the similarly-named probe_opcode_t, which is an alias for u32. Hence there is no endianness conversion warning. Fix this by changing the arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields to __le32 and adding the appropriate __le32_to_cpu() conversions prior to consuming the instruction encoding. The core uprobes copies these fields as opaque ranges of bytes, and so is unaffected by this change. At the same time, remove MAX_UINSN_BYTES and consistently use AARCH64_INSN_SIZE for clarity. Tested with the following: | #include <stdio.h> | #include <stdbool.h> | | #define noinline __attribute__((noinline)) | | static noinline void *adrp_self(void) | { | void *addr; | | asm volatile( | " adrp %x0, adrp_self\n" | " add %x0, %x0, :lo12:adrp_self\n" | : "=r" (addr)); | } | | | int main(int argc, char *argv) | { | void *ptr = adrp_self(); | bool equal = (ptr == adrp_self); | | printf("adrp_self => %p\n" | "adrp_self() => %p\n" | "%s\n", | adrp_self, ptr, equal ? "EQUAL" : "NOT EQUAL"); | | return 0; | } .... where the adrp_self() function was compiled to: | 00000000004007e0 <adrp_self>: | 4007e0: 90000000 adrp x0, 400000 <__ehdr_start> | 4007e4: 911f8000 add x0, x0, #0x7e0 | 4007e8: d65f03c0 ret Before this patch, the ADRP is not recognized, and is assumed to be steppable, resulting in corruption of the result: | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL | # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events | # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0xffffffffff7e0 | NOT EQUAL After this patch, the ADRP is correctly recognized and simulated: | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL | # | # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events | # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL

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

A 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
Affected:>= 4.10, < 4.19.323>= 4.20, < 5.4.285>= 5.5, < 5.10.229>= 5.11, < 5.15.170>= 5.16, < 6.1.115>= 6.2, < 6.6.58>= 6.7, < 6.11.5= 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 4.19.323 / 5.4.285 / 5.10.229 or later
Fixed in 4.19.3235.4.2855.10.229
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to kernel version 4.19.323 (or later for 4.19.x), 5.4.285 (or later for 5.4.x), 5.10.229 (or later for 5.10.x), or 5.15.170 (or later for 5.15.x)

  1. Identify the currently running Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Determine which version branch the current kernel belongs to (e.g., 4.19.x, 5.4.x, 5.10.x, 5.15.x)
  3. Upgrade the kernel to a version at or above the fixed release for that branch: 4.19.323+, 5.4.285+, 5.10.229+, or 5.15.170+
  4. Reboot the system to load the new kernel
  5. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and confirming big-endian arm64 uprobes functionality
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require updating dependent modules or drivers; ensure compatibility with userspace tools before rebooting

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

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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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