# CVE-2024-46744: Squashfs: sanity check symbolic link size

> A corrupted Squashfs symbolic link size causes an integer overflow, leading to uninitialized memory access and potential denial of service in the Linux kernel.

- **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:** 18 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-49764, BELL-CVE-2024-46744, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46744, GHSA-fxvq-h88x-3jfr, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46744

## What is CVE-2024-46744?

CVE-2024-46744 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

Squashfs: sanity check symbolic link size

Syzkiller reports a "KMSAN: uninit-value in pick_link" bug.

This is caused by an uninitialised page, which is ultimately caused
by a corrupted symbolic link size read from disk.

The reason why the corrupted symlink size causes an uninitialised
page is due to the following sequence of events:

1. squashfs_read_inode() is called to read the symbolic
   link from disk.  This assigns the corrupted value
   3875536935 to inode->i_size.

2. Later squashfs_symlink_read_folio() is called, which assigns
   this corrupted value to the length variable, which being a
   signed int, overflows producing a negative number.

3. The following loop that fills in the page contents checks that
   the copied bytes is less than length, which being negative means
   the loop is skipped, producing an uninitialised page.

This patch adds a sanity check which checks that the symbolic
link size is not larger than expected.

--

V2: fix spelling mistake.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46744?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46744?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46744 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46744 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-2024-46744 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46744 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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-2024-46744 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-2024-46744/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46744/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46744
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46744
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46744

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46744/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.