Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-49888

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel ≤ 6.10.14

Published
21 October 2024
Modified
13 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0024 15th percentile
Risk Priority 42 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-49888 is a medium-severity Integer Overflow or Wraparound (CWE-190) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 15th 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: bpf: Fix a sdiv overflow issue Zac Ecob reported a problem where a bpf program may cause kernel crash due to the following error: Oops: divide error: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT…

more

SMP KASAN PTI The failure is due to the below signed divide: LLONG_MIN/-1 where LLONG_MIN equals to -9,223,372,036,854,775,808. LLONG_MIN/-1 is supposed to give a positive number 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, but it is impossible since for 64-bit system, the maximum positive number is 9,223,372,036,854,775,807. On x86_64, LLONG_MIN/-1 will cause a kernel exception. On arm64, the result for LLONG_MIN/-1 is LLONG_MIN. Further investigation found all the following sdiv/smod cases may trigger an exception when bpf program is running on x86_64 platform: - LLONG_MIN/-1 for 64bit operation - INT_MIN/-1 for 32bit operation - LLONG_MIN%-1 for 64bit operation - INT_MIN%-1 for 32bit operation where -1 can be an immediate or in a register. On arm64, there are no exceptions: - LLONG_MIN/-1 = LLONG_MIN - INT_MIN/-1 = INT_MIN - LLONG_MIN%-1 = 0 - INT_MIN%-1 = 0 where -1 can be an immediate or in a register. Insn patching is needed to handle the above cases and the patched codes produced results aligned with above arm64 result. The below are pseudo codes to handle sdiv/smod exceptions including both divisor -1 and divisor 0 and the divisor is stored in a register. sdiv: tmp = rX tmp += 1 /* [-1, 0] -> [0, 1] if tmp >(unsigned) 1 goto L2 if tmp == 0 goto L1 rY = 0 L1: rY = -rY; goto L3 L2: rY /= rX L3: smod: tmp = rX tmp += 1 /* [-1, 0] -> [0, 1] if tmp >(unsigned) 1 goto L1 if tmp == 1 (is64 ? goto L2 : goto L3) rY = 0; goto L2 L1: rY %= rX L2: goto L4 // only when !is64 L3: wY = wY // only when !is64 L4: [1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/tPJLTEh7S_DxFEqAI2Ji5MBSoZVg7_G-Py2iaZpAaWtM961fFTWtsnlzwvTbzBzaUzwQAoNATXKUlt0LZOFgnDcIyKCswAnAGdUF3LBrhGQ=@protonmail.com/

CWE(s)

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.
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.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-49994Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-43838Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-52857Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-46198Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-38624Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-53161Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-22091Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-53032Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-43254Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-21997Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
≤ 6.10.14 · 6.11 — 6.11.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, unit tests) directly finds integer overflow defects before deployment.

Secure engineering principles require use of safe arithmetic constructs or language features that structurally eliminate integer overflow during calculation.

Input validation enforces bounds on values before arithmetic, stopping the conditions that trigger overflow or wraparound.

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 SDLC practices directly require use of safe arithmetic, bounds checks, and testing that prevent integer overflows.

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.

finds

Security testing in development can detect integer overflows before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates input validation and arithmetic checks that prevent integer overflows.

degrades

Application security requirements include bounds checking and safe arithmetic to avoid overflow conditions.

degrades

Secure architecture principles require defensive coding patterns that mitigate integer wraparound risks.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe integer operations and mandate overflow-safe constructs.

References