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🛡️ CVE-2024-53680 — kernel

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

Description

ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init()

In 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.

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.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Affected software

CVE-2024-53680 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.7.0 up to 6.12.5)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 11 January 2025 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

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
lists.debian.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-2024-53680 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 2025-01-11
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.7.0 6.12.5
linux-kernel — —

References

Similar Threats

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