Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-56779

Linux Kernel ≤ 5.4.287

Published
08 January 2025
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0053 42th percentile
Risk Priority 72 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-56779 is a critical-severity Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime (CWE-401) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 42th 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

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nfsd: fix nfs4_openowner leak when concurrent nfsd4_open occur The action force umount(umount -f) will attempt to kill all rpc_task even umount operation may ultimately fail if some files remain open.…

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Consequently, if an action attempts to open a file, it can potentially send two rpc_task to nfs server. NFS CLIENT thread1 thread2 open("file") ... nfs4_do_open _nfs4_do_open _nfs4_open_and_get_state _nfs4_proc_open nfs4_run_open_task /* rpc_task1 */ rpc_run_task rpc_wait_for_completion_task umount -f nfs_umount_begin rpc_killall_tasks rpc_signal_task rpc_task1 been wakeup and return -512 _nfs4_do_open // while loop ... nfs4_run_open_task /* rpc_task2 */ rpc_run_task rpc_wait_for_completion_task While processing an open request, nfsd will first attempt to find or allocate an nfs4_openowner. If it finds an nfs4_openowner that is not marked as NFS4_OO_CONFIRMED, this nfs4_openowner will released. Since two rpc_task can attempt to open the same file simultaneously from the client to server, and because two instances of nfsd can run concurrently, this situation can lead to lots of memory leak. Additionally, when we echo 0 to /proc/fs/nfsd/threads, warning will be triggered. NFS SERVER nfsd1 nfsd2 echo 0 > /proc/fs/nfsd/threads nfsd4_open nfsd4_process_open1 find_or_alloc_open_stateowner // alloc oo1, stateid1 nfsd4_open nfsd4_process_open1 find_or_alloc_open_stateowner // find oo1, without NFS4_OO_CONFIRMED release_openowner unhash_openowner_locked list_del_init(&oo->oo_perclient) // cannot find this oo // from client, LEAK!!! alloc_stateowner // alloc oo2 nfsd4_process_open2 init_open_stateid // associate oo1 // with stateid1, stateid1 LEAK!!! nfs4_get_vfs_file // alloc nfsd_file1 and nfsd_file_mark1 // all LEAK!!! nfsd4_process_open2 ... write_threads ... nfsd_destroy_serv nfsd_shutdown_net nfs4_state_shutdown_net nfs4_state_destroy_net destroy_client __destroy_client // won't find oo1!!! nfsd_shutdown_generic nfsd_file_cache_shutdown kmem_cache_destroy for nfsd_file_slab and nfsd_file_mark_slab // bark since nfsd_file1 // and nfsd_file_mark1 // still alive ======================================================================= BUG nfsd_file (Not tainted): Objects remaining in nfsd_file on __kmem_cache_shutdown() ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Slab 0xffd4000004438a80 objects=34 used=1 fp=0xff11000110e2ad28 flags=0x17ffffc0000240(workingset|head|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 757 Comm: sh Not tainted 6.12.0-rc6+ #19 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> dum ---truncated---

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

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.
T1499.003 Application Exhaustion Flood Impact
Adversaries may target resource intensive features of applications to cause a denial of service (DoS), denying availability to those applications.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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CVE-2023-52936Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
≤ 5.4.287 · 5.5 — 5.10.231 · 5.11 — 5.15.174

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.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

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.

finds

Security testing in development can detect unreleased memory, providing partial coverage of the weakness.

prevents

Secure development life cycle mandates memory-management practices that reduce missing-release defects.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify explicit memory-release rules, partially mitigating the weakness.

prevents

Secure system architecture and engineering principles include resource-management guidelines that address memory leaks.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly require proper allocation/deallocation, covering most of this weakness.

finds

Capacity management may detect memory exhaustion symptoms but does not prevent the coding flaw.

References