CVE-2024-50231 iio: gts-helper: Fix memory leaks in iio_gts_build_avail_scale_table()

What is CVE-2024-50231?

CVE-2024-50231 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 9 Nov 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:

iio: gts-helper: Fix memory leaks in iio_gts_build_avail_scale_table()

modprobe iio-test-gts and rmmod it, then the following memory leak occurs:

unreferenced object 0xffffff80c810be00 (size 64): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1654, jiffies 4294913981 hex dump (first 32 bytes): 02 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 ........ ...@... 80 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 08 00 00 ................ backtrace (crc a63d875e): [<0000000028c1b3c2>] kmemleak_alloc+0x34/0x40 [<000000001d6ecc87>] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2bc/0x3c0 [<00000000393795c1>] devm_iio_init_iio_gts+0x4b4/0x16f4 [<0000000071bb4b09>] 0xffffffdf052a62e0 [<000000000315bc18>] 0xffffffdf052a6488 [<00000000f9dc55b5>] kunit_try_run_case+0x13c/0x3ac [<00000000175a3fd4>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x80/0xec [<00000000f505065d>] kthread+0x2e8/0x374 [<00000000bbfb0e5d>] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 unreferenced object 0xffffff80cbfe9e70 (size 16): comm "kunit_try_catch", pid 1658, jiffies 4294914015 hex dump (first 16 bytes): 10 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ....@........... backtrace (crc 857f0cb4): [<0000000028c1b3c2>] kmemleak_alloc+0x34/0x40 [<000000001d6ecc87>] __kmalloc_noprof+0x2bc/0x3c0 [<00000000393795c1>] devm_iio_init_iio_gts+0x4b4/0x16f4 [<0000000071bb4b09>] 0xffffffdf052a62e0 [<000000007d089d45>] 0xffffffdf052a6864 [<00000000f9dc55b5>] kunit_try_run_case+0x13c/0x3ac [<00000000175a3fd4>] kunit_generic_run_threadfn_adapter+0x80/0xec [<00000000f505065d>] kthread+0x2e8/0x374 [<00000000bbfb0e5d>] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 ......

It includes 5*5 times "size 64" memory leaks, which correspond to 5 times test_init_iio_gain_scale() calls with gts_test_gains size 10 (10*size(int)) and gts_test_itimes size 5. It also includes 5*1 times "size 16" memory leak, which correspond to one time __test_init_iio_gain_scale() call with gts_test_gains_gain_low size 3 (3*size(int)) and gts_test_itimes size 5.

The reason is that the per_time_gains[i] is not freed which is allocated in the "gts->num_itime" for loop in iio_gts_build_avail_scale_table().

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50231?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-50231?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2024-50231 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50231 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-53129, BELL-CVE-2024-50231, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50231, GHSA-ghff-7r8p-2pr4, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50231.