# CVE-2024-53680: ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init()

> Uninitialized stack access in Linux kernel IPVS module causes oops or boot panic, leading to denial of service.

- **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:** 11 Jan 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-53680, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-53680, GHSA-5f32-qq4v-9hch, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-53680

## What is CVE-2024-53680?

CVE-2024-53680 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 11 Jan 2025. 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:

ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init()

Under certain kernel configurations when building with Clang/LLVM, the
compiler does not generate a return or jump as the terminator
instruction for ip_vs_protocol_init(), triggering the following objtool
warning during build time:

  vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: ip_vs_protocol_init() falls through to next function __initstub__kmod_ip_vs_rr__935_123_ip_vs_rr_init6()

At runtime, this either causes an oops when trying to load the ipvs
module or a boot-time panic if ipvs is built-in. This same issue has
been reported by the Intel kernel test robot previously.

Digging deeper into both LLVM and the kernel code reveals this to be a
undefined behavior problem. ip_vs_protocol_init() uses a on-stack buffer
of 64 chars to store the registered protocol names and leaves it
uninitialized after definition. The function calls strnlen() when
concatenating protocol names into the buffer. With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE
strnlen() performs an extra step to check whether the last byte of the
input char buffer is a null character (commit 3009f891bb9f ("fortify:
Allow strlen() and strnlen() to pass compile-time known lengths")).
This, together with possibly other configurations, cause the following
IR to be generated:

  define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #5 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !29 {
    %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16
    ...

  14:                                               ; preds = %11
    %15 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63
    %16 = load i8, ptr %15, align 1
    %17 = tail call i1 @llvm.is.constant.i8(i8 %16)
    %18 = icmp eq i8 %16, 0
    %19 = select i1 %17, i1 %18, i1 false
    br i1 %19, label %20, label %23

  20:                                               ; preds = %14
    %21 = call i64 @strlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1) #23
    ...

  23:                                               ; preds = %14, %11, %20
    %24 = call i64 @strnlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1, i64 noundef 64) #24
    ...
  }

The above code calculates the address of the last char in the buffer
(value %15) and then loads from it (value %16). Because the buffer is
never initialized, the LLVM GVN pass marks value %16 as undefined:

  %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63
  br i1 undef, label %14, label %17

This gives later passes (SCCP, in particular) more DCE opportunities by
propagating the undef value further, and eventually removes everything
after the load on the uninitialized stack location:

  define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #0 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !11 {
    %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16
    ...

  12:                                               ; preds = %11
    %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63
    unreachable
  }

In this way, the generated native code will just fall through to the
next function, as LLVM does not generate any code for the unreachable IR
instruction and leaves the function without a terminator.

Zero the on-stack buffer to avoid this possible UB.

Weakness: CWE-908 (Use of Uninitialized Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-53680?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-53680?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-53680 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-53680 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-2024-53680 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-53680 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 11 Jan 2025. 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-2024-53680 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-2024-53680/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-53680/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-53680
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-53680
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-53680

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-53680/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.