Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-53096

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-11-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.10.231 / 5.15.174 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit 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: mm: resolve faulty mmap_region() error path behaviour The mmap_region() function is somewhat terrifying, with spaghetti-like control flow and numerous means by which issues can arise and incomplete state, memory leaks and other unpleasantness can occur. A large amount of the complexity arises from trying to handle errors late in the process of mapping a VMA, which forms the basis of recently observed issues with resource leaks and observable inconsistent state. Taking advantage of previous patches in this series we move a number of checks earlier in the code, simplifying things by moving the core of the logic into a static internal function __mmap_region(). Doing this allows us to perform a number of checks up front before we do any real work, and allows us to unwind the writable unmap check unconditionally as required and to perform a CONFIG_DEBUG_VM_MAPLE_TREE validation unconditionally also. We move a number of things here: 1. We preallocate memory for the iterator before we call the file-backed memory hook, allowing us to exit early and avoid having to perform complicated and error-prone close/free logic. We carefully free iterator state on both success and error paths. 2. The enclosing mmap_region() function handles the mapping_map_writable() logic early. Previously the logic had the mapping_map_writable() at the point of mapping a newly allocated file-backed VMA, and a matching mapping_unmap_writable() on success and error paths. We now do this unconditionally if this is a file-backed, shared writable mapping. If a driver changes the flags to eliminate VM_MAYWRITE, however doing so does not invalidate the seal check we just performed, and we in any case always decrement the counter in the wrapper. We perform a debug assert to ensure a driver does not attempt to do the opposite. 3. We also move arch_validate_flags() up into the mmap_region() function. This is only relevant on arm64 and sparc64, and the check is only meaningful for SPARC with ADI enabled. We explicitly add a warning for this arch if a driver invalidates this check, though the code ought eventually to be fixed to eliminate the need for this. With all of these measures in place, we no longer need to explicitly close the VMA on error paths, as we place all checks which might fail prior to a call to any driver mmap hook. This eliminates an entire class of errors, makes the code easier to reason about and more robust.

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:>= 5.10.150, < 5.10.231>= 5.15.75, < 5.15.174>= 6.0.3, < 6.1.119>= 6.2, < 6.6.63>= 6.7, < 6.12= 5.19.17= 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 5.10.231 / 5.15.174 / 6.1.119 or later
Fixed in 5.10.2315.15.1746.1.119
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Upgrade to Linux kernel >= 5.10.231 (for 5.10.x), >= 5.15.174 (for 5.15.x), >= 6.1.119 (for 6.1.x), or >= 6.6.63 (for 6.2-6.6.x)

  1. Identify your current Linux kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Determine your Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, CentOS, etc.)
  3. For Ubuntu/Debian: Run 'sudo apt-get update' then 'sudo apt-get upgrade linux-image-generic' to upgrade to the latest available kernel
  4. For RHEL/CentOS: Run 'sudo yum update kernel' to upgrade to the latest available kernel
  5. For other distributions, use the distribution's standard package manager to update the kernel package
  6. After upgrading, reboot the system to load the new kernel: 'sudo reboot'
  7. Verify the new kernel version includes the fix by checking 'uname -r' matches a version >= 5.10.231, >= 5.15.174, >= 6.1.119, or >= 6.6.63 as appropriate for your base version
  8. Alternatively, verify the kernel contains commit 43323a4e5b3f8ccc08e2f835abfdc7ee9da8f6ed using 'grep 43323a4e5b3f8ccc08e2f835abfdc7ee9da8f6ed /proc/version' or checking kernel source
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require system reboot and could have compatibility issues with proprietary kernel modules or specific hardware drivers; test in staging environment 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 $1,950. 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-2024-53096 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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