CVE-2024-50254 bpf: Free dynamically allocated bits in bpf_iter_bits_destroy()

What is CVE-2024-50254?

CVE-2024-50254 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:

bpf: Free dynamically allocated bits in bpf_iter_bits_destroy()

bpf_iter_bits_destroy() uses "kit->nr_bits <= 64" to check whether the bits are dynamically allocated. However, the check is incorrect and may cause a kmemleak as shown below:

unreferenced object 0xffff88812628c8c0 (size 32): comm "swapper/0", pid 1, jiffies 4294727320 hex dump (first 32 bytes): b0 c1 55 f5 81 88 ff ff f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 ..U........... f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .............. backtrace (crc 781e32cc): [<00000000c452b4ab>] kmemleak_alloc+0x4b/0x80 [<0000000004e09f80>] __kmalloc_node_noprof+0x480/0x5c0 [<00000000597124d6>] __alloc.isra.0+0x89/0xb0 [<000000004ebfffcd>] alloc_bulk+0x2af/0x720 [<00000000d9c10145>] prefill_mem_cache+0x7f/0xb0 [<00000000ff9738ff>] bpf_mem_alloc_init+0x3e2/0x610 [<000000008b616eac>] bpf_global_ma_init+0x19/0x30 [<00000000fc473efc>] do_one_initcall+0xd3/0x3c0 [<00000000ec81498c>] kernel_init_freeable+0x66a/0x940 [<00000000b119f72f>] kernel_init+0x20/0x160 [<00000000f11ac9a7>] ret_from_fork+0x3c/0x70 [<0000000004671da4>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30

That is because nr_bits will be set as zero in bpf_iter_bits_next() after all bits have been iterated.

Fix the issue by setting kit->bit to kit->nr_bits instead of setting kit->nr_bits to zero when the iteration completes in bpf_iter_bits_next(). In addition, use "!nr_bits || bits >= nr_bits" to check whether the iteration is complete and still use "nr_bits > 64" to indicate whether bits are dynamically allocated. The "!nr_bits" check is necessary because bpf_iter_bits_new() may fail before setting kit->nr_bits, and this condition will stop the iteration early instead of accessing the zeroed or freed kit->bits.

Considering the initial value of kit->bits is -1 and the type of kit->nr_bits is unsigned int, change the type of kit->nr_bits to int. The potential overflow problem will be handled in the following patch.

Weakness: CWE-401

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50254?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-50254?

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-2024-50254 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50254 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 BELL-CVE-2024-50254, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50254, GHSA-c7cg-c752-q6q2, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50254.