# CVE-2024-50252: mlxsw: spectrum_ipip: Fix memory leak when changing remote IPv6 address

> A memory leak in the Linux kernel mlxsw driver allows local attackers to exhaust system memory by repeatedly changing IPv6 addresses on ip6gre devices.

- **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:** 9 Nov 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-53340, BELL-CVE-2024-50252, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50252, GHSA-mp8v-432g-7v26, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50252

## What is CVE-2024-50252?

CVE-2024-50252 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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:

mlxsw: spectrum_ipip: Fix memory leak when changing remote IPv6 address

The device stores IPv6 addresses that are used for encapsulation in
linear memory that is managed by the driver.

Changing the remote address of an ip6gre net device never worked
properly, but since cited commit the following reproducer [1] would
result in a warning [2] and a memory leak [3]. The problem is that the
new remote address is never added by the driver to its hash table (and
therefore the device) and the old address is never removed from it.

Fix by programming the new address when the configuration of the ip6gre
net device changes and removing the old one. If the address did not
change, then the above would result in increasing the reference count of
the address and then decreasing it.

[1]
 # ip link add name bla up type ip6gre local 2001:db8:1::1 remote 2001:db8:2::1 tos inherit ttl inherit
 # ip link set dev bla type ip6gre remote 2001:db8:3::1
 # ip link del dev bla
 # devlink dev reload pci/0000:01:00.0

[2]
WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 1682 at drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlxsw/spectrum.c:3002 mlxsw_sp_ipv6_addr_put+0x140/0x1d0
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1682 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.12.0-rc3-custom-g86b5b55bc835 #151
Hardware name: Nvidia SN5600/VMOD0013, BIOS 5.13 05/31/2023
RIP: 0010:mlxsw_sp_ipv6_addr_put+0x140/0x1d0
[...]
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 mlxsw_sp_router_netdevice_event+0x55f/0x1240
 notifier_call_chain+0x5a/0xd0
 call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x39/0x90
 unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x63e/0x9d0
 rtnl_dellink+0x16b/0x3a0
 rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x142/0x3f0
 netlink_rcv_skb+0x50/0x100
 netlink_unicast+0x242/0x390
 netlink_sendmsg+0x1de/0x420
 ____sys_sendmsg+0x2bd/0x320
 ___sys_sendmsg+0x9a/0xe0
 __sys_sendmsg+0x7a/0xd0
 do_syscall_64+0x9e/0x1a0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

[3]
unreferenced object 0xffff898081f597a0 (size 32):
  comm "ip", pid 1626, jiffies 4294719324
  hex dump (first 32 bytes):
    20 01 0d b8 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01   ...............
    21 49 61 83 80 89 ff ff 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  !Ia.............
  backtrace (crc fd9be911):
    [<00000000df89c55d>] __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x1da/0x260
    [<00000000ff2a1ddb>] mlxsw_sp_ipv6_addr_kvdl_index_get+0x281/0x340
    [<000000009ddd445d>] mlxsw_sp_router_netdevice_event+0x47b/0x1240
    [<00000000743e7757>] notifier_call_chain+0x5a/0xd0
    [<000000007c7b9e13>] call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0x39/0x90
    [<000000002509645d>] register_netdevice+0x5f7/0x7a0
    [<00000000c2e7d2a9>] ip6gre_newlink_common.isra.0+0x65/0x130
    [<0000000087cd6d8d>] ip6gre_newlink+0x72/0x120
    [<000000004df7c7cc>] rtnl_newlink+0x471/0xa20
    [<0000000057ed632a>] rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x142/0x3f0
    [<0000000032e0d5b5>] netlink_rcv_skb+0x50/0x100
    [<00000000908bca63>] netlink_unicast+0x242/0x390
    [<00000000cdbe1c87>] netlink_sendmsg+0x1de/0x420
    [<0000000011db153e>] ____sys_sendmsg+0x2bd/0x320
    [<000000003b6d53eb>] ___sys_sendmsg+0x9a/0xe0
    [<00000000cae27c62>] __sys_sendmsg+0x7a/0xd0

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50252?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-50252?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-50252 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50252 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-2024-50252 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-50252 is a medium-severity memory corruption 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50252 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-2024-50252/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50252/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-50252
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-50252
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-50252

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50252/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.