Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-53185

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 6.6.57 – 6.6.64

Published
27 December 2024
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0048 39th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-53185 is a high-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 39th 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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: client: fix NULL ptr deref in crypto_aead_setkey() Neither SMB3.0 or SMB3.02 supports encryption negotiate context, so when SMB2_GLOBAL_CAP_ENCRYPTION flag is set in the negotiate response, the client uses AES-128-CCM…

more

as the default cipher. See MS-SMB2 3.3.5.4. Commit b0abcd65ec54 ("smb: client: fix UAF in async decryption") added a @server->cipher_type check to conditionally call smb3_crypto_aead_allocate(), but that check would always be false as @server->cipher_type is unset for SMB3.02. Fix the following KASAN splat by setting @server->cipher_type for SMB3.02 as well. mount.cifs //srv/share /mnt -o vers=3.02,seal,... BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in crypto_aead_setkey+0x2c/0x130 Read of size 8 at addr 0000000000000020 by task mount.cifs/1095 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 1095 Comm: mount.cifs Not tainted 6.12.0 #1 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-3.fc41 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x5d/0x80 ? crypto_aead_setkey+0x2c/0x130 kasan_report+0xda/0x110 ? crypto_aead_setkey+0x2c/0x130 crypto_aead_setkey+0x2c/0x130 crypt_message+0x258/0xec0 [cifs] ? __asan_memset+0x23/0x50 ? __pfx_crypt_message+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? mark_lock+0xb0/0x6a0 ? hlock_class+0x32/0xb0 ? mark_lock+0xb0/0x6a0 smb3_init_transform_rq+0x352/0x3f0 [cifs] ? lock_acquire.part.0+0xf4/0x2a0 smb_send_rqst+0x144/0x230 [cifs] ? __pfx_smb_send_rqst+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? hlock_class+0x32/0xb0 ? smb2_setup_request+0x225/0x3a0 [cifs] ? __pfx_cifs_compound_last_callback+0x10/0x10 [cifs] compound_send_recv+0x59b/0x1140 [cifs] ? __pfx_compound_send_recv+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? __create_object+0x5e/0x90 ? hlock_class+0x32/0xb0 ? do_raw_spin_unlock+0x9a/0xf0 cifs_send_recv+0x23/0x30 [cifs] SMB2_tcon+0x3ec/0xb30 [cifs] ? __pfx_SMB2_tcon+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? lock_acquire.part.0+0xf4/0x2a0 ? __pfx_lock_release+0x10/0x10 ? do_raw_spin_trylock+0xc6/0x120 ? lock_acquire+0x3f/0x90 ? _get_xid+0x16/0xd0 [cifs] ? __pfx_SMB2_tcon+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? cifs_get_smb_ses+0xcdd/0x10a0 [cifs] cifs_get_smb_ses+0xcdd/0x10a0 [cifs] ? __pfx_cifs_get_smb_ses+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? cifs_get_tcp_session+0xaa0/0xca0 [cifs] cifs_mount_get_session+0x8a/0x210 [cifs] dfs_mount_share+0x1b0/0x11d0 [cifs] ? __pfx___lock_acquire+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_dfs_mount_share+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? lock_acquire.part.0+0xf4/0x2a0 ? find_held_lock+0x8a/0xa0 ? hlock_class+0x32/0xb0 ? lock_release+0x203/0x5d0 cifs_mount+0xb3/0x3d0 [cifs] ? do_raw_spin_trylock+0xc6/0x120 ? __pfx_cifs_mount+0x10/0x10 [cifs] ? lock_acquire+0x3f/0x90 ? find_nls+0x16/0xa0 ? smb3_update_mnt_flags+0x372/0x3b0 [cifs] cifs_smb3_do_mount+0x1e2/0xc80 [cifs] ? __pfx_vfs_parse_fs_string+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_cifs_smb3_do_mount+0x10/0x10 [cifs] smb3_get_tree+0x1bf/0x330 [cifs] vfs_get_tree+0x4a/0x160 path_mount+0x3c1/0xfb0 ? kasan_quarantine_put+0xc7/0x1d0 ? __pfx_path_mount+0x10/0x10 ? kmem_cache_free+0x118/0x3e0 ? user_path_at+0x74/0xa0 __x64_sys_mount+0x1a6/0x1e0 ? __pfx___x64_sys_mount+0x10/0x10 ? mark_held_locks+0x1a/0x90 do_syscall_64+0xbb/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
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.
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-2024-38612Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-26793Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-27061Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-52951Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-53232Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-57798Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-56669Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-46195Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-1118Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-1195Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.6.57 — 6.6.64 · 6.11.4 — 6.11.11 · 6.12 — 6.12.2

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.

Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.

Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.

Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.

Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.

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 (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.

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 can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.

prevents

Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.

prevents

Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
  • V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416

References