🛡️ CVE-2024-50254 — kernel

🟡 CVSS 5.5 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
5.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

bpf: Free dynamically allocated bits in bpf_iter_bits_destroy()

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

bpf: Free dynamically allocated bits in bpf_iter_bits_destroy()

bpf_iter_bits_destroy() uses "kit->nr_bits <= 64" to check whether the

bits are dynamically allocated. However, the check is incorrect and may

cause a kmemleak as shown below:

unreferenced object 0xffff88812628c8c0 (size 32):

comm "swapper/0", pid 1, jiffies 4294727320

hex dump (first 32 bytes):

b0 c1 55 f5 81 88 ff ff f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 ..U...........

f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..............

backtrace (crc 781e32cc):

[<00000000c452b4ab>] kmemleak_alloc+0x4b/0x80

[<0000000004e09f80>] __kmalloc_node_noprof+0x480/0x5c0

[<00000000597124d6>] __alloc.isra.0+0x89/0xb0

[<000000004ebfffcd>] alloc_bulk+0x2af/0x720

[<00000000d9c10145>] prefill_mem_cache+0x7f/0xb0

[<00000000ff9738ff>] bpf_mem_alloc_init+0x3e2/0x610

[<000000008b616eac>] bpf_global_ma_init+0x19/0x30

[<00000000fc473efc>] do_one_initcall+0xd3/0x3c0

[<00000000ec81498c>] kernel_init_freeable+0x66a/0x940

[<00000000b119f72f>] kernel_init+0x20/0x160

[<00000000f11ac9a7>] ret_from_fork+0x3c/0x70

[<0000000004671da4>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

That is because nr_bits will be set as zero in bpf_iter_bits_next()

after all bits have been iterated.

Fix the issue by setting kit->bit to kit->nr_bits instead of setting

kit->nr_bits to zero when the iteration completes in

bpf_iter_bits_next(). In addition, use "!nr_bits || bits >= nr_bits" to

check whether the iteration is complete and still use "nr_bits > 64" to

indicate whether bits are dynamically allocated. The "!nr_bits" check is

necessary because bpf_iter_bits_new() may fail before setting

kit->nr_bits, and this condition will stop the iteration early instead

of accessing the zeroed or freed kit->bits.

Considering the initial value of kit->bits is -1 and the type of

kit->nr_bits is unsigned int, change the type of kit->nr_bits to int.

The potential overflow problem will be handled in the following patch.

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 none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2024-50254 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.11.0 up to 6.11.7)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 9 November 2024 and last revised on 15 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

CVE-2024-50254 on other distributions

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

Details

Severity Medium
CVSS Score 5.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2024-11-09
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-15

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.11.0 6.11.7
linux-kernel

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