CVE-2024-50302
Linux Kernel 3.12 – 4.19.324
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:NCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2024-50302 is a medium-severity Use of Uninitialized Resource (CWE-908) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked in the top 46% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities 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.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
The vulnerability is a use of an uninitialized buffer in the Linux kernel HID subsystem. Specifically, the HID core allocated a report buffer without zeroing its contents, allowing subsequent use by various HID drivers to potentially expose kernel memory through specially crafted reports. The issue is tracked as CVE-2024-50302 with a CVSS score of 5.5 and is assigned CWE-908.
A local attacker with the ability to interact with HID devices can exploit the flaw by supplying a crafted report that causes the uninitialized buffer contents to be returned to user space. Successful exploitation results in disclosure of sensitive kernel memory while requiring low attack complexity and no user interaction.
The provided references point to upstream kernel commits that resolve the issue by ensuring the report buffer is explicitly zero-initialized at allocation time. These patches have been backported across multiple stable kernel branches.
EPSS scores remain low, with a current value of 0.0221 and a peak of only 0.0278.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-44804
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: core: zero-initialize the report buffer Since the report buffer is used by all kinds of drivers in various ways, let's zero-initialize it during allocation to make sure that it…
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can't be ever used to leak kernel memory via specially-crafted report.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 04 March 2025
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 (including static analysis) can find uses of uninitialized resources after they are coded.
Requiring documented development standards and tools can mandate initialization checks and safe patterns that stop the weakness from being introduced.
Engineering principles can require explicit resource initialization before use, structurally avoiding uninitialized access.
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 activities such as static analysis and code review directly prevent use of uninitialized resources while also addressing many other weaknesses.
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 and acceptance can detect uninitialized resource usage through dynamic analysis and fuzzing.
Secure development life cycle mandates initialization checks and static analysis that can catch uninitialized resource use.
Application security requirements can specify mandatory initialization of variables and resources before use.
Secure system architecture and engineering principles include defensive coding practices that prevent use of uninitialized memory or objects.
Secure coding standards directly require explicit initialization of all variables and resources, substantially mitigating CWE-908.