# CVE-2024-50279: dm cache: fix out-of-bounds access to the dirty bitset when resizing

> A local attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel dm-cache module during device resizing, causing a system crash.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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:** 19 Nov 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-53630, BELL-CVE-2024-50279, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50279, GHSA-v6rg-qv6j-p6gp, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50279

## What is CVE-2024-50279?

CVE-2024-50279 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 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:

dm cache: fix out-of-bounds access to the dirty bitset when resizing

dm-cache checks the dirty bits of the cache blocks to be dropped when
shrinking the fast device, but an index bug in bitset iteration causes
out-of-bounds access.

Reproduce steps:

1. create a cache device of 1024 cache blocks (128 bytes dirty bitset)

dmsetup create cmeta --table "0 8192 linear /dev/sdc 0"
dmsetup create cdata --table "0 131072 linear /dev/sdc 8192"
dmsetup create corig --table "0 524288 linear /dev/sdc 262144"
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/cmeta bs=4k count=1 oflag=direct
dmsetup create cache --table "0 524288 cache /dev/mapper/cmeta \
/dev/mapper/cdata /dev/mapper/corig 128 2 metadata2 writethrough smq 0"

2. shrink the fast device to 512 cache blocks, triggering out-of-bounds
   access to the dirty bitset (offset 0x80)

dmsetup suspend cache
dmsetup reload cdata --table "0 65536 linear /dev/sdc 8192"
dmsetup resume cdata
dmsetup resume cache

KASAN reports:

  BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in cache_preresume+0x269/0x7b0
  Read of size 8 at addr ffffc900000f3080 by task dmsetup/131

  (...snip...)
  The buggy address belongs to the virtual mapping at
   [ffffc900000f3000, ffffc900000f5000) created by:
   cache_ctr+0x176a/0x35f0

  (...snip...)
  Memory state around the buggy address:
   ffffc900000f2f80: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8
   ffffc900000f3000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
  >ffffc900000f3080: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8
                     ^
   ffffc900000f3100: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8
   ffffc900000f3180: f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8 f8

Fix by making the index post-incremented.

Weakness: CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50279?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-50279?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-50279 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50279 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-2024-50279 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-50279 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 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-2024-50279 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-2024-50279/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50279/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-50279
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-50279
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-50279

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50279/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.