# CVE-2024-46789: mm/slub: add check for s->flags in the alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook > A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel SLUB allocator causes a warning and potential crash when specific memory debugging features are enabled. - **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:** 18 Sep 2024 - **Updated:** 11 May 2026 - **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-46789, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46789, GHSA-xmx8-5v8v-4mhj, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46789 ## What is CVE-2024-46789? CVE-2024-46789 is a medium-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: mm/slub: add check for s->flags in the alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook When enable CONFIG_MEMCG & CONFIG_KFENCE & CONFIG_KMEMLEAK, the following warning always occurs,This is because the following call stack occurred: mem_pool_alloc kmem_cache_alloc_noprof slab_alloc_node kfence_alloc Once the kfence allocation is successful,slab->obj_exts will not be empty, because it has already been assigned a value in kfence_init_pool. Since in the prepare_slab_obj_exts_hook function,we perform a check for s->flags & (SLAB_NO_OBJ_EXT | SLAB_NOLEAKTRACE),the alloc_tag_add function will not be called as a result.Therefore,ref->ct remains NULL. However,when we call mem_pool_free,since obj_ext is not empty, it eventually leads to the alloc_tag_sub scenario being invoked. This is where the warning occurs. So we should add corresponding checks in the alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook. For __GFP_NO_OBJ_EXT case,I didn't see the specific case where it's using kfence,so I won't add the corresponding check in alloc_tagging_slab_free_hook for now. [ 3.734349] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 3.734807] alloc_tag was not set [ 3.735129] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 40 at ./include/linux/alloc_tag.h:130 kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.735866] Modules linked in: autofs4 [ 3.736211] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 40 Comm: ksoftirqd/4 Tainted: G W 6.11.0-rc3-dirty #1 [ 3.736969] Tainted: [W]=WARN [ 3.737258] Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS unknown 2/2/2022 [ 3.737875] pstate: 60400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 3.738501] pc : kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.738951] lr : kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.739361] sp : ffff80008357bb60 [ 3.739693] x29: ffff80008357bb70 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000 [ 3.740338] x26: ffff80008207f000 x25: ffff000b2eb2fd60 x24: ffff0000c0005700 [ 3.740982] x23: ffff8000804229e4 x22: ffff800082080000 x21: ffff800081756000 [ 3.741630] x20: fffffd7ff8253360 x19: 00000000000000a8 x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 3.742274] x17: ffff800ab327f000 x16: ffff800083398000 x15: ffff800081756df0 [ 3.742919] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 205d344320202020 x12: 5b5d373038343337 [ 3.743560] x11: ffff80008357b650 x10: 000000000000005d x9 : 00000000ffffffd0 [ 3.744231] x8 : 7f7f7f7f7f7f7f7f x7 : ffff80008237bad0 x6 : c0000000ffff7fff [ 3.744907] x5 : ffff80008237ba78 x4 : ffff8000820bbad0 x3 : 0000000000000001 [ 3.745580] x2 : 68d66547c09f7800 x1 : 68d66547c09f7800 x0 : 0000000000000000 [ 3.746255] Call trace: [ 3.746530] kmem_cache_free+0x444/0x574 [ 3.746931] mem_pool_free+0x44/0xf4 [ 3.747306] free_object_rcu+0xc8/0xdc [ 3.747693] rcu_do_batch+0x234/0x8a4 [ 3.748075] rcu_core+0x230/0x3e4 [ 3.748424] rcu_core_si+0x14/0x1c [ 3.748780] handle_softirqs+0x134/0x378 [ 3.749189] run_ksoftirqd+0x70/0x9c [ 3.749560] smpboot_thread_fn+0x148/0x22c [ 3.749978] kthread+0x10c/0x118 [ 3.750323] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 3.750696] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46789? It affects 1 product. Products: Linux kernel. ## How do I fix CVE-2024-46789? Apply the vendor's patch. ## Is CVE-2024-46789 being exploited? There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46789 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-2024-46789 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2024-46789 is a medium-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-2024-46789 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-2024-46789/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46789/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46789 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46789 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46789 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46789/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.