# CVE-2024-56544: udmabuf: change folios array from kmalloc to kvmalloc

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning and potential null dereference by creating large udmabuf instances, causing a 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:** 27 Dec 2024
- **Updated:** 21 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-56237, AZL-56250, BELL-CVE-2024-56544, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-56544, GHSA-xrf5-hv85-5f65, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-56544, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2024-56544, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-56544, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2024-56544, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-56544

## What is CVE-2024-56544?

CVE-2024-56544 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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:

udmabuf: change folios array from kmalloc to kvmalloc

When PAGE_SIZE 4096, MAX_PAGE_ORDER 10, 64bit machine,
page_alloc only support 4MB.
If above this, trigger this warn and return NULL.

udmabuf can change size limit, if change it to 3072(3GB), and then alloc
3GB udmabuf, will fail create.

[ 4080.876581] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[ 4080.876843] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 2015 at mm/page_alloc.c:4556 __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350
[ 4080.878839] RIP: 0010:__alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350
[ 4080.879470] Call Trace:
[ 4080.879473]  <TASK>
[ 4080.879473]  ? __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350
[ 4080.879475]  ? __warn.cold+0x8e/0xe8
[ 4080.880647]  ? __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350
[ 4080.880909]  ? report_bug+0xff/0x140
[ 4080.881175]  ? handle_bug+0x3c/0x80
[ 4080.881556]  ? exc_invalid_op+0x17/0x70
[ 4080.881559]  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
[ 4080.882077]  ? udmabuf_create+0x131/0x400

Because MAX_PAGE_ORDER, kmalloc can max alloc 4096 * (1 << 10), 4MB
memory, each array entry is pointer(8byte), so can save 524288 pages(2GB).

Further more, costly order(order 3) may not be guaranteed that it can be
applied for, due to fragmentation.

This patch change udmabuf array use kvmalloc_array, this can fallback
alloc into vmalloc, which can guarantee allocation for any size and does
not affect the performance of kmalloc allocations.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-56544?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-56544?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-56544 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-56544 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-2024-56544 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-56544 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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-2024-56544 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-2024-56544/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-56544/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-56544
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-56544
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-56544

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-56544/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.