CVE-2024-41055 mm: prevent derefencing NULL ptr in pfn_section_valid()

What is CVE-2024-41055?

CVE-2024-41055 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 29 Jul 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:

mm: prevent derefencing NULL ptr in pfn_section_valid()

Commit 5ec8e8ea8b77 ("mm/sparsemem: fix race in accessing memory_section->usage") changed pfn_section_valid() to add a READ_ONCE() call around "ms->usage" to fix a race with section_deactivate() where ms->usage can be cleared. The READ_ONCE() call, by itself, is not enough to prevent NULL pointer dereference. We need to check its value before dereferencing it.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-41055?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-41055?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-41055 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-41055 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-47994, BELL-CVE-2024-41055, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-41055, GHSA-7x54-v488-56pj, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-41055.