Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2024-53680
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: ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init() Under certain kernel configurations when building with Clang/LLVM, the compiler does not generate a return or jump as the terminator instruction for ip_vs_protocol_init(), triggering the following objtool warning during build time: vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: ip_vs_protocol_init() falls through to next function __initstub__kmod_ip_vs_rr__935_123_ip_vs_rr_init6() At runtime, this either causes an oops when trying to load the ipvs module or a boot-time panic if ipvs is built-in. This same issue has been reported by the Intel kernel test robot previously. Digging deeper into both LLVM and the kernel code reveals this to be a undefined behavior problem. ip_vs_protocol_init() uses a on-stack buffer of 64 chars to store the registered protocol names and leaves it uninitialized after definition. The function calls strnlen() when concatenating protocol names into the buffer. With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE strnlen() performs an extra step to check whether the last byte of the input char buffer is a null character (commit 3009f891bb9f ("fortify: Allow strlen() and strnlen() to pass compile-time known lengths")). This, together with possibly other configurations, cause the following IR to be generated: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #5 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !29 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 14: ; preds = %11 %15 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 %16 = load i8, ptr %15, align 1 %17 = tail call i1 @llvm.is.constant.i8(i8 %16) %18 = icmp eq i8 %16, 0 %19 = select i1 %17, i1 %18, i1 false br i1 %19, label %20, label %23 20: ; preds = %14 %21 = call i64 @strlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1) #23 ... 23: ; preds = %14, %11, %20 %24 = call i64 @strnlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1, i64 noundef 64) #24 ... } The above code calculates the address of the last char in the buffer (value %15) and then loads from it (value %16). Because the buffer is never initialized, the LLVM GVN pass marks value %16 as undefined: %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 br i1 undef, label %14, label %17 This gives later passes (SCCP, in particular) more DCE opportunities by propagating the undef value further, and eventually removes everything after the load on the uninitialized stack location: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #0 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !11 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 12: ; preds = %11 %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 unreachable } In this way, the generated native code will just fall through to the next function, as LLVM does not generate any code for the unreachable IR instruction and leaves the function without a terminator. Zero the on-stack buffer to avoid this possible UB.
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 analysisMemory or a resource is used before it has been initialised, so its contents are whatever happened to be there — sometimes leaking earlier data, sometimes values an attacker can influence. Behaviour becomes unpredictable and occasionally exploitable. Remediation is initialising every resource before use and ensuring initialisation happens on all code paths.
General guidance for the use of uninitialized resource 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
>= 2.6.13, < 5.4.287>= 5.5, < 5.10.231>= 5.11, < 5.15.174>= 5.16, < 6.1.120>= 6.2, < 6.6.66>= 6.7, < 6.12.5= 2.6.12= 6.13CVSS 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 · scoped5.4.2875.10.2315.15.174
Upgrade to kernel version 5.4.287, 5.10.231, 5.15.174, or 6.1.120 or later (as appropriate for your kernel branch)
- Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
- Check which affected version range your kernel falls into (>= 2.6.13, < 5.4.287; >= 5.5, < 5.10.231; >= 5.11, < 5.15.174; or >= 5.16, < 6.1.120)
- Obtain a kernel update from your Linux distribution vendor that includes the fix for CVE-2024-53680
- The fix commit is: 0b2cbed82b7c6504a8a0fbd181f92dd56b432c12
- Apply the kernel update and reboot to the new kernel version
- Verify the running kernel is now at a patched version: >= 5.4.287, >= 5.10.231, >= 5.15.174, or >= 6.1.120
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-53680 — 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-2024-53680 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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