# CVE-2024-35814: swiotlb: Fix double-allocation of slots due to broken alignment handling

> A Linux kernel bug in SWIOTLB alignment handling causes double-allocation of memory slots, leading to buffer corruption and system hangs in virtual machines.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 May 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-35814, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-35814, GHSA-rqvp-j9p2-fcwx, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-35814

## What is CVE-2024-35814?

CVE-2024-35814 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 May 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:

swiotlb: Fix double-allocation of slots due to broken alignment handling

Commit bbb73a103fbb ("swiotlb: fix a braino in the alignment check fix"),
which was a fix for commit 0eee5ae10256 ("swiotlb: fix slot alignment
checks"), causes a functional regression with vsock in a virtual machine
using bouncing via a restricted DMA SWIOTLB pool.

When virtio allocates the virtqueues for the vsock device using
dma_alloc_coherent(), the SWIOTLB search can return page-unaligned
allocations if 'area->index' was left unaligned by a previous allocation
from the buffer:

 # Final address in brackets is the SWIOTLB address returned to the caller
 | virtio-pci 0000:00:07.0: orig_addr 0x0 alloc_size 0x2000, iotlb_align_mask 0x800 stride 0x2: got slot 1645-1649/7168 (0x98326800)
 | virtio-pci 0000:00:07.0: orig_addr 0x0 alloc_size 0x2000, iotlb_align_mask 0x800 stride 0x2: got slot 1649-1653/7168 (0x98328800)
 | virtio-pci 0000:00:07.0: orig_addr 0x0 alloc_size 0x2000, iotlb_align_mask 0x800 stride 0x2: got slot 1653-1657/7168 (0x9832a800)

This ends badly (typically buffer corruption and/or a hang) because
swiotlb_alloc() is expecting a page-aligned allocation and so blindly
returns a pointer to the 'struct page' corresponding to the allocation,
therefore double-allocating the first half (2KiB slot) of the 4KiB page.

Fix the problem by treating the allocation alignment separately to any
additional alignment requirements from the device, using the maximum
of the two as the stride to search the buffer slots and taking care
to ensure a minimum of page-alignment for buffers larger than a page.

This also resolves swiotlb allocation failures occuring due to the
inclusion of ~PAGE_MASK in 'iotlb_align_mask' for large allocations and
resulting in alignment requirements exceeding swiotlb_max_mapping_size().

Weakness: CWE-415 (Double Free), CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer), CWE-1055 (Multiple Inheritance from Concrete Classes)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-35814?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-35814?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-35814 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-35814 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-35814 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-35814 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-35814 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35814/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35814/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-35814
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-35814
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-35814

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-35814/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.