CVE-2024-50254
Linux Kernel 6.11 – 6.11.7
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2024-50254 is a medium-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 7th 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-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-44756
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Free dynamically allocated bits in bpf_iter_bits_destroy() bpf_iter_bits_destroy() uses "kit->nr_bits <= 64" to check whether the bits are dynamically allocated. However, the check is incorrect and may cause a kmemleak…
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as shown below: unreferenced object 0xffff88812628c8c0 (size 32): comm "swapper/0", pid 1, jiffies 4294727320 hex dump (first 32 bytes): b0 c1 55 f5 81 88 ff ff f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 ..U........... f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .............. backtrace (crc 781e32cc): [<00000000c452b4ab>] kmemleak_alloc+0x4b/0x80 [<0000000004e09f80>] __kmalloc_node_noprof+0x480/0x5c0 [<00000000597124d6>] __alloc.isra.0+0x89/0xb0 [<000000004ebfffcd>] alloc_bulk+0x2af/0x720 [<00000000d9c10145>] prefill_mem_cache+0x7f/0xb0 [<00000000ff9738ff>] bpf_mem_alloc_init+0x3e2/0x610 [<000000008b616eac>] bpf_global_ma_init+0x19/0x30 [<00000000fc473efc>] do_one_initcall+0xd3/0x3c0 [<00000000ec81498c>] kernel_init_freeable+0x66a/0x940 [<00000000b119f72f>] kernel_init+0x20/0x160 [<00000000f11ac9a7>] ret_from_fork+0x3c/0x70 [<0000000004671da4>] ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 That is because nr_bits will be set as zero in bpf_iter_bits_next() after all bits have been iterated. Fix the issue by setting kit->bit to kit->nr_bits instead of setting kit->nr_bits to zero when the iteration completes in bpf_iter_bits_next(). In addition, use "!nr_bits || bits >= nr_bits" to check whether the iteration is complete and still use "nr_bits > 64" to indicate whether bits are dynamically allocated. The "!nr_bits" check is necessary because bpf_iter_bits_new() may fail before setting kit->nr_bits, and this condition will stop the iteration early instead of accessing the zeroed or freed kit->bits. Considering the initial value of kit->bits is -1 and the type of kit->nr_bits is unsigned int, change the type of kit->nr_bits to int. The potential overflow problem will be handled in the following patch.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (static analysis, fuzzing, or runtime leak detection) directly finds missing deallocation.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate memory-management disciplines that avoid leaks at introduction.
Engineering principles applied during development can require explicit resource-release patterns that stop memory leaks from being coded.
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.
Secure SDLC practices directly enforce proper memory allocation/deallocation via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.
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.
Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.
Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.
Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.
Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.
Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.