Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-40978

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel ≤ 4.19.317

Memory Safety
Published
12 July 2024
Modified
12 May 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0032 25th percentile
Risk Priority 52 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-40978 is a high-severity Out-of-bounds Read (CWE-125) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 25th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: qedi: Fix crash while reading debugfs attribute The qedi_dbg_do_not_recover_cmd_read() function invokes sprintf() directly on a __user pointer, which results into the crash. To fix this issue, use a small…

more

local stack buffer for sprintf() and then call simple_read_from_buffer(), which in turns make the copy_to_user() call. BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 00007f4801111000 PGD 8000000864df6067 P4D 8000000864df6067 PUD 864df7067 PMD 846028067 PTE 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI Hardware name: HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10/ProLiant DL380 Gen10, BIOS U30 06/15/2023 RIP: 0010:memcpy_orig+0xcd/0x130 RSP: 0018:ffffb7a18c3ffc40 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 00007f4801111000 RBX: 00007f4801111000 RCX: 000000000000000f RDX: 000000000000000f RSI: ffffffffc0bfd7a0 RDI: 00007f4801111000 RBP: ffffffffc0bfd7a0 R08: 725f746f6e5f6f64 R09: 3d7265766f636572 R10: ffffb7a18c3ffd08 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 00007f4881110fff R13: 000000007fffffff R14: ffffb7a18c3ffca0 R15: ffffffffc0bfd7af FS: 00007f480118a740(0000) GS:ffff98e38af00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f4801111000 CR3: 0000000864b8e001 CR4: 00000000007706e0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body+0x1a/0x60 ? page_fault_oops+0x183/0x510 ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? memcpy_orig+0xcd/0x130 vsnprintf+0x102/0x4c0 sprintf+0x51/0x80 qedi_dbg_do_not_recover_cmd_read+0x2f/0x50 [qedi 6bcfdeeecdea037da47069eca2ba717c84a77324] full_proxy_read+0x50/0x80 vfs_read+0xa5/0x2e0 ? folio_add_new_anon_rmap+0x44/0xa0 ? set_pte_at+0x15/0x30 ? do_pte_missing+0x426/0x7f0 ksys_read+0xa5/0xe0 do_syscall_64+0x58/0x80 ? __count_memcg_events+0x46/0x90 ? count_memcg_event_mm+0x3d/0x60 ? handle_mm_fault+0x196/0x2f0 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x267/0x890 ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc RIP: 0033:0x7f4800f20b4d

CWE(s)
CWE-125

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1211 Exploitation for Stealth Stealth
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities to evade detection by hiding activity, suppressing logging, or operating within trusted or unmonitored components.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
≤ 4.19.317 · 4.20 — 5.4.279 · 5.5 — 5.10.221

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation directly finds out-of-bounds read flaws through static analysis, fuzzing, and dynamic bounds checks.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure engineering principles require bounds checking and memory-safe constructs that stop out-of-bounds reads from being introduced.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation confines the effects of an out-of-bounds read to the compromised process.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Input validation rejects malformed indices or lengths that would otherwise cause reads outside buffer bounds.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure-development practices such as bounds checking and memory-safe languages directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover instances of out-of-bounds reads after code is deployed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching replaces vulnerable code containing out-of-bounds read flaws.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development and acceptance includes fuzzing and static analysis that detect out-of-bounds read defects before release.

A.8.15 Logging partial match
finds

Logging can record evidence of an out-of-bounds read but does not prevent the weakness itself.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates input validation and bounds checking that directly prevent out-of-bounds reads.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements include explicit bounds and memory-safety specifications that mitigate buffer over-reads.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles require memory-safe design patterns and runtime protections against out-of-bounds access.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe pointer arithmetic and mandate bounds-checked reads, eliminating CWE-125.

References