CVE-2024-26688 fs,hugetlb: fix NULL pointer dereference in hugetlbs_fill_super

Medium 5.5 Published 3 Apr 2024 Updated 11 May 2026

A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by passing an invalid page size when mounting a hugetlb filesystem via fsconfig.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2024-26688?

CVE-2024-26688 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 3 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

fs,hugetlb: fix NULL pointer dereference in hugetlbs_fill_super

When configuring a hugetlb filesystem via the fsconfig() syscall, there is a possible NULL dereference in hugetlbfs_fill_super() caused by assigning NULL to ctx->hstate in hugetlbfs_parse_param() when the requested pagesize is non valid.

E.g: Taking the following steps:

fd = fsopen("hugetlbfs", FSOPEN_CLOEXEC); fsconfig(fd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "pagesize", "1024", 0); fsconfig(fd, FSCONFIG_CMD_CREATE, NULL, NULL, 0);

Given that the requested "pagesize" is invalid, ctxt->hstate will be replaced with NULL, losing its previous value, and we will print an error:

... ... case Opt_pagesize: ps = memparse(param->string, &rest); ctx->hstate = h; if (!ctx->hstate) { pr_err("Unsupported page size %lu MB\n", ps / SZ_1M); return -EINVAL; } return 0; ... ...

This is a problem because later on, we will dereference ctxt->hstate in hugetlbfs_fill_super()

... ... sb->s_blocksize = huge_page_size(ctx->hstate); ... ...

Causing below Oops.

Fix this by replacing cxt->hstate value only when then pagesize is known to be valid.

kernel: hugetlbfs: Unsupported page size 0 MB kernel: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028 kernel: #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode kernel: #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page kernel: PGD 800000010f66c067 P4D 800000010f66c067 PUD 1b22f8067 PMD 0 kernel: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI kernel: CPU: 4 PID: 5659 Comm: syscall Tainted: G E 6.8.0-rc2-default+ #22 5a47c3fef76212addcc6eb71344aabc35190ae8f kernel: Hardware name: Intel Corp. GROVEPORT/GROVEPORT, BIOS GVPRCRB1.86B.0016.D04.1705030402 05/03/2017 kernel: RIP: 0010:hugetlbfs_fill_super+0xb4/0x1a0 kernel: Code: 48 8b 3b e8 3e c6 ed ff 48 85 c0 48 89 45 20 0f 84 d6 00 00 00 48 b8 ff ff ff ff ff ff ff 7f 4c 89 e7 49 89 44 24 20 48 8b 03 <8b> 48 28 b8 00 10 00 00 48 d3 e0 49 89 44 24 18 48 8b 03 8b 40 28 kernel: RSP: 0018:ffffbe9960fcbd48 EFLAGS: 00010246 kernel: RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff9af5272ae780 RCX: 0000000000372004 kernel: RDX: ffffffffffffffff RSI: ffffffffffffffff RDI: ffff9af555e9b000 kernel: RBP: ffff9af52ee66b00 R08: 0000000000000040 R09: 0000000000370004 kernel: R10: ffffbe9960fcbd48 R11: 0000000000000040 R12: ffff9af555e9b000 kernel: R13: ffffffffa66b86c0 R14: ffff9af507d2f400 R15: ffff9af507d2f400 kernel: FS: 00007ffbc0ba4740(0000) GS:ffff9b0bd7000000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 kernel: CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 kernel: CR2: 0000000000000028 CR3: 00000001b1ee0000 CR4: 00000000001506f0 kernel: Call Trace: kernel: <TASK> kernel: ? __die_body+0x1a/0x60 kernel: ? page_fault_oops+0x16f/0x4a0 kernel: ? search_bpf_extables+0x65/0x70 kernel: ? fixup_exception+0x22/0x310 kernel: ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 kernel: ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 kernel: ? __pfx_hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 kernel: ? hugetlbfs_fill_super+0xb4/0x1a0 kernel: ? hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x28/0x1a0 kernel: ? __pfx_hugetlbfs_fill_super+0x10/0x10 kernel: vfs_get_super+0x40/0xa0 kernel: ? __pfx_bpf_lsm_capable+0x10/0x10 kernel: vfs_get_tree+0x25/0xd0 kernel: vfs_cmd_create+0x64/0xe0 kernel: __x64_sys_fsconfig+0x395/0x410 kernel: do_syscall_64+0x80/0x160 kernel: ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x82/0x240 kernel: ? do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x160 kernel: ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x82/0x240 kernel: ? do_syscall_64+0x8d/0x160 kernel: ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 kernel: entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0x76 kernel: RIP: 0033:0x7ffbc0cb87c9 kernel: Code: 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 66 90 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 97 96 0d 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 kernel: RSP: 002b:00007ffc29d2f388 EFLAGS: 00000206 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000001af kernel: RAX: fffffffffff ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26688?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-26688?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-26688 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26688 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Debian Debian Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-26688, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26688, GHSA-wfcg-p9mh-53w7, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26688.