# CVE-2024-57885: mm/kmemleak: fix sleeping function called from invalid context at print message

> A kernel bug causes a crash when printing kmemleak data under specific real-time and security configurations, 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:** 15 Jan 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-57885, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-57885, GHSA-w665-84fv-4jpv, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-57885

## What is CVE-2024-57885?

CVE-2024-57885 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 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:

mm/kmemleak: fix sleeping function called from invalid context at print message

Address a bug in the kernel that triggers a "sleeping function called from
invalid context" warning when /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak is printed under
specific conditions:
- CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT=y
- Set SELinux as the LSM for the system
- Set kptr_restrict to 1
- kmemleak buffer contains at least one item

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:48
in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 1, non_block: 0, pid: 136, name: cat
preempt_count: 1, expected: 0
RCU nest depth: 2, expected: 2
6 locks held by cat/136:
 #0: ffff32e64bcbf950 (&p->lock){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: seq_read_iter+0xb8/0xe30
 #1: ffffafe6aaa9dea0 (scan_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: kmemleak_seq_start+0x34/0x128
 #3: ffff32e6546b1cd0 (&object->lock){....}-{2:2}, at: kmemleak_seq_show+0x3c/0x1e0
 #4: ffffafe6aa8d8560 (rcu_read_lock){....}-{1:2}, at: has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x8/0x1b0
 #5: ffffafe6aabbc0f8 (notif_lock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: avc_compute_av+0xc4/0x3d0
irq event stamp: 136660
hardirqs last  enabled at (136659): [<ffffafe6a80fd7a0>] _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0xa8/0xd8
hardirqs last disabled at (136660): [<ffffafe6a80fd85c>] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x8c/0xb0
softirqs last  enabled at (0): [<ffffafe6a5d50b28>] copy_process+0x11d8/0x3df8
softirqs last disabled at (0): [<0000000000000000>] 0x0
Preemption disabled at:
[<ffffafe6a6598a4c>] kmemleak_seq_show+0x3c/0x1e0
CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 136 Comm: cat Tainted: G            E      6.11.0-rt7+ #34
Tainted: [E]=UNSIGNED_MODULE
Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
Call trace:
 dump_backtrace+0xa0/0x128
 show_stack+0x1c/0x30
 dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x198
 dump_stack+0x18/0x20
 rt_spin_lock+0x8c/0x1a8
 avc_perm_nonode+0xa0/0x150
 cred_has_capability.isra.0+0x118/0x218
 selinux_capable+0x50/0x80
 security_capable+0x7c/0xd0
 has_ns_capability_noaudit+0x94/0x1b0
 has_capability_noaudit+0x20/0x30
 restricted_pointer+0x21c/0x4b0
 pointer+0x298/0x760
 vsnprintf+0x330/0xf70
 seq_printf+0x178/0x218
 print_unreferenced+0x1a4/0x2d0
 kmemleak_seq_show+0xd0/0x1e0
 seq_read_iter+0x354/0xe30
 seq_read+0x250/0x378
 full_proxy_read+0xd8/0x148
 vfs_read+0x190/0x918
 ksys_read+0xf0/0x1e0
 __arm64_sys_read+0x70/0xa8
 invoke_syscall.constprop.0+0xd4/0x1d8
 el0_svc+0x50/0x158
 el0t_64_sync+0x17c/0x180

%pS and %pK, in the same back trace line, are redundant, and %pS can void
%pK service in certain contexts.

%pS alone already provides the necessary information, and if it cannot
resolve the symbol, it falls back to printing the raw address voiding
the original intent behind the %pK.

Additionally, %pK requires a privilege check CAP_SYSLOG enforced through
the LSM, which can trigger a "sleeping function called from invalid
context" warning under RT_PREEMPT kernels when the check occurs in an
atomic context. This issue may also affect other LSMs.

This change avoids the unnecessary privilege check and resolves the
sleeping function warning without any loss of information.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-57885?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-57885?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-57885 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-57885 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-2024-57885 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-57885 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 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-2024-57885 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-2024-57885/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-57885/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-57885
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-57885
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-57885

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-57885/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
