CVE-2024-49885 mm, slub: avoid zeroing kmalloc redzone

What is CVE-2024-49885?

CVE-2024-49885 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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: avoid zeroing kmalloc redzone

Since commit 946fa0dbf2d8 ("mm/slub: extend redzone check to extra allocated kmalloc space than requested"), setting orig_size treats the wasted space (object_size - orig_size) as a redzone. However with init_on_free=1 we clear the full object->size, including the redzone.

Additionally we clear the object metadata, including the stored orig_size, making it zero, which makes check_object() treat the whole object as a redzone.

These issues lead to the following BUG report with "slub_debug=FUZ init_on_free=1":

[ 0.000000] ============================================================================= [ 0.000000] BUG kmalloc-8 (Not tainted): kmalloc Redzone overwritten [ 0.000000] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] 0xffff000010032858-0xffff00001003285f @offset=2136. First byte 0x0 instead of 0xcc [ 0.000000] FIX kmalloc-8: Restoring kmalloc Redzone 0xffff000010032858-0xffff00001003285f=0xcc [ 0.000000] Slab 0xfffffdffc0400c80 objects=36 used=23 fp=0xffff000010032a18 flags=0x3fffe0000000200(workingset|node=0|zone=0|lastcpupid=0x1ffff) [ 0.000000] Object 0xffff000010032858 @offset=2136 fp=0xffff0000100328c8 [ 0.000000] [ 0.000000] Redzone ffff000010032850: cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc ........ [ 0.000000] Object ffff000010032858: cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc ........ [ 0.000000] Redzone ffff000010032860: cc cc cc cc cc cc cc cc ........ [ 0.000000] Padding ffff0000100328b4: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ............ [ 0.000000] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 6.11.0-rc3-next-20240814-00004-g61844c55c3f4 #144 [ 0.000000] Hardware name: NXP i.MX95 19X19 board (DT) [ 0.000000] Call trace: [ 0.000000] dump_backtrace+0x90/0xe8 [ 0.000000] show_stack+0x18/0x24 [ 0.000000] dump_stack_lvl+0x74/0x8c [ 0.000000] dump_stack+0x18/0x24 [ 0.000000] print_trailer+0x150/0x218 [ 0.000000] check_object+0xe4/0x454 [ 0.000000] free_to_partial_list+0x2f8/0x5ec

To address the issue, use orig_size to clear the used area. And restore the value of orig_size after clear the remaining area.

When CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG not defined, (get_orig_size()' directly returns s->object_size. So when using memset to init the area, the size can simply be orig_size, as orig_size returns object_size when CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG not enabled. And orig_size can never be bigger than object_size.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-49885?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-49885?

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-2024-49885 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-49885 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-52969, BELL-CVE-2024-49885, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-49885, GHSA-2h93-g5hm-9qcv, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-49885.