Security Resilience

CVE-2024-56620

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 6.3 – 6.12.5

Memory Safety
Published
27 December 2024
Modified
07 April 2025
Patch / advisory
View 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 0.0021 11th percentile
Risk Priority 41 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). EPSS scores by FIRST (EPSS SIG), generated by Empirical Security. Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-56620 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 11th 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)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: ufs: qcom: Only free platform MSIs when ESI is enabled Otherwise, it will result in a NULL pointer dereference as below: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at…

more

virtual address 0000000000000008 Call trace: mutex_lock+0xc/0x54 platform_device_msi_free_irqs_all+0x14/0x20 ufs_qcom_remove+0x34/0x48 [ufs_qcom] platform_remove+0x28/0x44 device_remove+0x4c/0x80 device_release_driver_internal+0xd8/0x178 driver_detach+0x50/0x9c bus_remove_driver+0x6c/0xbc driver_unregister+0x30/0x60 platform_driver_unregister+0x14/0x20 ufs_qcom_pltform_exit+0x18/0xb94 [ufs_qcom] __arm64_sys_delete_module+0x180/0x260 invoke_syscall+0x44/0x100 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0xc0/0xe0 do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28 el0_svc+0x34/0xdc el0t_64_sync_handler+0xc0/0xc4 el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194

CWE(s)
CWE-476

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1687 Exploitation for Defense Impairment Defense Impairment
Adversaries may exploit vulnerabilities in security software, infrastructure, or defensive components to degrade, disable, or otherwise continue to impair their ability to prevent, detect, or respond to malicious activity.
attack.mitre.org →
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.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-46739Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-47720Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-52477Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2026-53291Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-38050Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-26738Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-43860Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-37855Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-36023Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-71125Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.13 · 6.3 — 6.12.5

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

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

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

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

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

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

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
blocks

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

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 can detect NULL dereference defects before release.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

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

References