CVE-2024-44966 binfmt_flat: Fix corruption when not offsetting data start
A memory corruption flaw in the Linux kernel's binfmt_flat handler allows attackers to corrupt memory segments, potentially leading to code execution or privilege escalation.
- 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-2024-44966?
CVE-2024-44966 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Sep 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:
binfmt_flat: Fix corruption when not offsetting data start
Commit 04d82a6d0881 ("binfmt_flat: allow not offsetting data start") introduced a RISC-V specific variant of the FLAT format which does not allocate any space for the (obsolete) array of shared library pointers. However, it did not disable the code which initializes the array, resulting in the corruption of sizeof(long) bytes before the DATA segment, generally the end of the TEXT segment.
Introduce MAX_SHARED_LIBS_UPDATE which depends on the state of CONFIG_BINFMT_FLAT_NO_DATA_START_OFFSET to guard the initialization of the shared library pointer region so that it will only be initialized if space is reserved for it.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-44966?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2024-44966?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2024-44966 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-44966 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-44966, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-44966, GHSA-g9qh-hcq6-2x9p, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-44966.