# CVE-2024-46688: erofs: fix out-of-bound access when z_erofs_gbuf_growsize() partially fails

> A local attacker can trigger a null pointer dereference or out-of-bounds access in the EROFS filesystem, causing a system crash.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 13 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-46688, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46688, GHSA-hrvw-rfgx-8g4m, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46688

## What is CVE-2024-46688?

CVE-2024-46688 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 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:

erofs: fix out-of-bound access when z_erofs_gbuf_growsize() partially fails

If z_erofs_gbuf_growsize() partially fails on a global buffer due to
memory allocation failure or fault injection (as reported by syzbot [1]),
new pages need to be freed by comparing to the existing pages to avoid
memory leaks.

However, the old gbuf->pages[] array may not be large enough, which can
lead to null-ptr-deref or out-of-bound access.

Fix this by checking against gbuf->nrpages in advance.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/000000000000f7b96e062018c6e3@google.com

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46688?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46688?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46688 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46688 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-2024-46688 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46688 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 Sep 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-2024-46688 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-2024-46688/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46688/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46688
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46688
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46688

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46688/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.