Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-57885

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-01-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.6.70 / 6.12.9 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: mm/kmemleak: fix sleeping function called from invalid context at print message Address a bug in the kernel that triggers a "sleeping function called from invalid context" warning when /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak is printed under specific conditions: - CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT=y - Set SELinux as the LSM for the system - Set kptr_restrict to 1 - kmemleak buffer contains at least one item BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:48 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, pid: 136, name: cat preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 2, expected: 2 6 locks held by cat/136: #0: ffff32e64bcbf950 (&p->lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: seq_read_iter+0xb8/0xe30 #1: ffffafe6aaa9dea0 (scan_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: kmemleak_seq_start+0x34/0x128 #3: ffff32e6546b1cd0 (&object->lock){....}-{2:2}, at: kmemleak_seq_show+0x3c/0x1e0 #4: ffffafe6aa8d8560 (rcu_read_lock){....}-{1:2}, at: has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x8/0x1b0 #5: ffffafe6aabbc0f8 (notif_lock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: avc_compute_av+0xc4/0x3d0 irq event stamp: 136660 hardirqs last enabled at (136659): [<ffffafe6a80fd7a0>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0xa8/0xd8 hardirqs last disabled at (136660): [<ffffafe6a80fd85c>] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x8c/0xb0 softirqs last enabled at (0): [<ffffafe6a5d50b28>] copy_process+0x11d8/0x3df8 softirqs last disabled at (0): [<0000000000000000>] 0x0 Preemption disabled at: [<ffffafe6a6598a4c>] kmemleak_seq_show+0x3c/0x1e0 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 136 Comm: cat Tainted: G E 6.11.0-rt7+ #34 Tainted: [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT) Call trace: dump_backtrace+0xa0/0x128 show_stack+0x1c/0x30 dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x198 dump_stack+0x18/0x20 rt_spin_lock+0x8c/0x1a8 avc_perm_nonode+0xa0/0x150 cred_has_capability.isra.0+0x118/0x218 selinux_capable+0x50/0x80 security_capable+0x7c/0xd0 has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x94/0x1b0 has_capability_noaudit+0x20/0x30 restricted_pointer+0x21c/0x4b0 pointer+0x298/0x760 vsnprintf+0x330/0xf70 seq_printf+0x178/0x218 print_unreferenced+0x1a4/0x2d0 kmemleak_seq_show+0xd0/0x1e0 seq_read_iter+0x354/0xe30 seq_read+0x250/0x378 full_proxy_read+0xd8/0x148 vfs_read+0x190/0x918 ksys_read+0xf0/0x1e0 __arm64_sys_read+0x70/0xa8 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0xd4/0x1d8 el0_svc+0x50/0x158 el0t_64_sync+0x17c/0x180 %pS and %pK, in the same back trace line, are redundant, and %pS can void %pK service in certain contexts. %pS alone already provides the necessary information, and if it cannot resolve the symbol, it falls back to printing the raw address voiding the original intent behind the %pK. Additionally, %pK requires a privilege check CAP_SYSLOG enforced through the LSM, which can trigger a "sleeping function called from invalid context" warning under RT_PREEMPT kernels when the check occurs in an atomic context. This issue may also affect other LSMs. This change avoids the unnecessary privilege check and resolves the sleeping function warning without any loss of information.

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-401

Allocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.

General guidance for the memory leak 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:>= 6.2, < 6.6.70>= 6.7, < 6.12.9= 6.13

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 6.6.70 / 6.12.9 or later
Fixed in 6.6.706.12.9
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 6.6.70+ or 6.12.9+ or 6.13.1+ (depending on branch)

  1. Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Check if the kernel version falls within the affected range: >= 6.2 and < 6.6.70, OR >= 6.7 and < 6.12.9, OR exactly 6.13
  3. If affected, upgrade to a fixed kernel release: 6.6.70 or later for the 6.6.y branch, or 6.12.9 or later for the 6.12.y branch, or 6.13.1 or later when available for the 6.13.y branch
  4. After reboot, verify the fix by checking kernel version with 'uname -r' and confirming it is greater than the fixed versions
  5. Optionally, confirm the fix is applied by checking the print_unreferenced function in the kernel source no longer uses %pK in conjunction with %pS
Caveat Upgrading kernel requires system reboot and may introduce unrelated changes from newer kernel releases

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 $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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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-2024-57885 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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