Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2024-56685
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: ASoC: mediatek: Check num_codecs is not zero to avoid panic during probe Following commit 13f58267cda3 ("ASoC: soc.h: don't create dummy Component via COMP_DUMMY()"), COMP_DUMMY() became an array with zero length, and only gets populated with the dummy struct after the card is registered. Since the sound card driver's probe happens before the card registration, accessing any of the members of a dummy component during probe will result in undefined behavior. This can be observed in the mt8188 and mt8195 machine sound drivers. By omitting a dai link subnode in the sound card's node in the Devicetree, the default uninitialized dummy codec is used, and when its dai_name pointer gets passed to strcmp() it results in a null pointer dereference and a kernel panic. In addition to that, set_card_codec_info() in the generic helpers file, mtk-soundcard-driver.c, will populate a dai link with a dummy codec when a dai link node is present in DT but with no codec property. The result is that at probe time, a dummy codec can either be uninitialized with num_codecs = 0, or be an initialized dummy codec, with num_codecs = 1 and dai_name = "snd-soc-dummy-dai". In order to accommodate for both situations, check that num_codecs is not zero before accessing the codecs' fields but still check for the codec's dai name against "snd-soc-dummy-dai" as needed. While at it, also drop the check that dai_name is not null in the mt8192 driver, introduced in commit 4d4e1b6319e5 ("ASoC: mediatek: mt8192: Check existence of dai_name before dereferencing"), as it is actually redundant given the preceding num_codecs != 0 check.
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
>= 6.8, < 6.11.11>= 6.12, < 6.12.2CVSS 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 · scoped6.11.116.12.2
Linux Kernel 6.11.11 or later for 6.8-6.11.x branches; Linux Kernel 6.12.2 or later for 6.12.x branch
- Identify your current kernel version using 'uname -r'
- For kernels >= 6.8 and < 6.11.11: Upgrade to kernel version 6.11.11 or later
- For kernels >= 6.12 and < 6.12.2: Upgrade to kernel version 6.12.2 or later
- Apply the upgrade using your distribution's package manager (e.g., 'apt-get dist-upgrade', 'yum update', or 'dnf update')
- Reboot the system to load the new kernel
- Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version and confirming the patch commit 2f2020327cc8561d7c520d2f2d9acea84fa7b3a3 is included
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-2024-56685 — 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-2024-56685 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
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