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🛡️ CVE-2024-50164 — kernel

🟠 CVSS 7.8 — High ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
7.8
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

bpf: Fix overloading of MEM_UNINIT's meaning

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bpf: Fix overloading of MEM_UNINIT's meaning

Lonial reported an issue in the BPF verifier where check_mem_size_reg()

has the following code:

if (!tnum_is_const(reg->var_off))

/* For unprivileged variable accesses, disable raw

  • mode so that the program is required to
  • initialize all the memory that the helper could
  • just partially fill up.

*/

meta = NULL;

This means that writes are not checked when the register containing the

size of the passed buffer has not a fixed size. Through this bug, a BPF

program can write to a map which is marked as read-only, for example,

.rodata global maps.

The problem is that MEM_UNINIT's initial meaning that "the passed buffer

to the BPF helper does not need to be initialized" which was added back

in commit 435faee1aae9 ("bpf, verifier: add ARG_PTR_TO_RAW_STACK type")

got overloaded over time with "the passed buffer is being written to".

The problem however is that checks such as the above which were added later

via 06c1c049721a ("bpf: allow helpers access to variable memory") set meta

to NULL in order force the user to always initialize the passed buffer to

the helper. Due to the current double meaning of MEM_UNINIT, this bypasses

verifier write checks to the memory (not boundary checks though) and only

assumes the latter memory is read instead.

Fix this by reverting MEM_UNINIT back to its original meaning, and having

MEM_WRITE as an annotation to BPF helpers in order to then trigger the

BPF verifier checks for writing to memory.

Some notes: check_arg_pair_ok() ensures that for ARG_CONST_SIZE{,_OR_ZERO}

we can access fn->arg_type[arg - 1] since it must contain a preceding

ARG_PTR_TO_MEM. For check_mem_reg() the meta argument can be removed

altogether since we do check both BPF_READ and BPF_WRITE. Same for the

equivalent check_kfunc_mem_size_reg().

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Local — a local account, shell or session on the host is needed.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: Low — an ordinary user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Integrity impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Affected software

CVE-2024-50164 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.7.0 up to 6.11.6)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 7 November 2024 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

cert-portal.siemens.com (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
lists.debian.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

Other advisories for this package

kernel has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

CVE-2024-50164 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity High
CVSS Score 7.8
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2024-11-07
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.7.0 6.11.6
linux-kernel — —

Similar Threats

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