// For flags

CVE-2024-50263

fork: only invoke khugepaged, ksm hooks if no error

Severity Score

5.5
*CVSS v3

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

1
*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

-
*KEV

Decision

-
*SSVC
Descriptions

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fork: only invoke khugepaged, ksm hooks if no error There is no reason to invoke these hooks early against an mm that is in an
incomplete state. The change in commit d24062914837 ("fork: use __mt_dup() to duplicate
maple tree in dup_mmap()") makes this more pertinent as we may be in a
state where entries in the maple tree are not yet consistent. Their placement early in dup_mmap() only appears to have been meaningful
for early error checking, and since functionally it'd require a very small
allocation to fail (in practice 'too small to fail') that'd only occur in
the most dire circumstances, meaning the fork would fail or be OOM'd in
any case. Since both khugepaged and KSM tracking are there to provide optimisations
to memory performance rather than critical functionality, it doesn't
really matter all that much if, under such dire memory pressure, we fail
to register an mm with these. As a result, we follow the example of commit d2081b2bf819 ("mm:
khugepaged: make khugepaged_enter() void function") and make ksm_fork() a
void function also. We only expose the mm to these functions once we are done with them and
only if no error occurred in the fork operation.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fork: only invoke khugepaged, ksm hooks if no error There is no reason to invoke these hooks early against an mm that is in an incomplete state. The change in commit d24062914837 ("fork: use __mt_dup() to duplicate maple tree in dup_mmap()") makes this more pertinent as we may be in a state where entries in the maple tree are not yet consistent. Their placement early in dup_mmap() only appears to have been meaningful for early error checking, and since functionally it'd require a very small allocation to fail (in practice 'too small to fail') that'd only occur in the most dire circumstances, meaning the fork would fail or be OOM'd in any case. Since both khugepaged and KSM tracking are there to provide optimisations to memory performance rather than critical functionality, it doesn't really matter all that much if, under such dire memory pressure, we fail to register an mm with these. As a result, we follow the example of commit d2081b2bf819 ("mm: khugepaged: make khugepaged_enter() void function") and make ksm_fork() a void function also. We only expose the mm to these functions once we are done with them and only if no error occurred in the fork operation.

Attila Szász discovered that the HFS+ file system implementation in the Linux Kernel contained a heap overflow vulnerability. An attacker could use a specially crafted file system image that, when mounted, could cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. Several security issues were discovered in the Linux kernel. An attacker could possibly use these to compromise the system.

*Credits: N/A
CVSS Scores
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Medium
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete
* Common Vulnerability Scoring System
SSVC
  • Decision:-
Exploitation
-
Automatable
-
Tech. Impact
-
* Organization's Worst-case Scenario
Timeline
  • 2024-10-21 CVE Reserved
  • 2024-11-11 CVE Published
  • 2024-12-09 First Exploit
  • 2024-12-19 CVE Updated
  • 2025-03-18 EPSS Updated
  • ---------- Exploited in Wild
  • ---------- KEV Due Date
CWE
CAPEC
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor Product Version Other Status
Vendor Product Version Other Status <-- --> Vendor Product Version Other Status
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 6.8 < 6.11.7
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 6.8 < 6.11.7"
en
Affected
Linux
Search vendor "Linux"
Linux Kernel
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel"
>= 6.8 < 6.12
Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " >= 6.8 < 6.12"
en
Affected