CVE-2024-57838
Linux Kernel ≤ 5.15.174
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2024-57838 is a high-severity Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere (CWE-668) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Cloud Instance Metadata API (T1552.005); ranked at the 12th 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — 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.
CVE-2024-57838 is a vulnerability in the Linux kernel's s390 architecture entry code, specifically related to interrupt request (IRQ) handling and stack trace management in the stack depot. The issue arises because the .irqentry.text section is empty on s390, preventing the stack depot from filtering out IRQ context code paths using in_irqentry_text(). This leads to ineffective stack trace de-duplication, an explosion of saved stack traces from various interrupt points, and eventual exhaustion of the stack depot's capacity, triggering warnings such as "Stack depot reached limit capacity" and kernel warnings in depot_alloc_stack(), particularly when PREEMPT and KASAN are enabled.
A local attacker with low privileges (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N) can exploit this vulnerability to achieve high confidentiality impact (C:H) and high availability impact (A:H) with no integrity impact (I:N), as indicated by the CVSS 3.1 score of 7.1. Exploitation involves triggering numerous asynchronous interrupts (IO/EXT), which overwhelm the stack depot due to poor filtering, potentially causing denial-of-service through resource exhaustion and kernel warnings or instability.
Kernel patches referenced in the advisories resolve the issue by moving IO/EXT interrupt handlers from .kprobes.text to the .irqentry.text section for asynchronous interrupts only, while updating the kprobes blacklist to include .irqentry.text. This enables proper filtering without affecting synchronous program checks or rare machine checks. Specific commits include 1af22528fee8, 45c9f2b856a0, 473ffae30301, and 5bb7a2c3afcf, with Debian LTS announcing backports for affected stable kernels. Security practitioners should update to patched kernels to mitigate stack depot exhaustion.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-53768
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: s390/entry: Mark IRQ entries to fix stack depot warnings The stack depot filters out everything outside of the top interrupt context as an uninteresting or irrelevant part of the stack…
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traces. This helps with stack trace de-duplication, avoiding an explosion of saved stack traces that share the same IRQ context code path but originate from different randomly interrupted points, eventually exhausting the stack depot. Filtering uses in_irqentry_text() to identify functions within the .irqentry.text and .softirqentry.text sections, which then become the last stack trace entries being saved. While __do_softirq() is placed into the .softirqentry.text section by common code, populating .irqentry.text is architecture-specific. Currently, the .irqentry.text section on s390 is empty, which prevents stack depot filtering and de-duplication and could result in warnings like: Stack depot reached limit capacity WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 286113 at lib/stackdepot.c:252 depot_alloc_stack+0x39a/0x3c8 with PREEMPT and KASAN enabled. Fix this by moving the IO/EXT interrupt handlers from .kprobes.text into the .irqentry.text section and updating the kprobes blacklist to include the .irqentry.text section. This is done only for asynchronous interrupts and explicitly not for program checks, which are synchronous and where the context beyond the program check is important to preserve. Despite machine checks being somewhat in between, they are extremely rare, and preserving context when possible is also of value. SVCs and Restart Interrupts are not relevant, one being always at the boundary to user space and the other being a one-time thing. IRQ entries filtering is also optionally used in ftrace function graph, where the same logic applies.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 8 hardening rules · 7 OS baselines
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Access enforcement directly stops resources from being reachable by actors outside the intended control sphere.
Information flow enforcement structurally prevents unintended cross-sphere data or resource exposure.
Least privilege reduces the set of actors that can reach a resource, limiting wrong-sphere exposure.
Security attributes enable correct sphere assignment and subsequent enforcement decisions.
Boundary protection at interfaces prevents resources from being exposed outside authorized spheres.
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.
Enforcing least-privilege authorizations directly prevents resources from being exposed outside their intended control sphere.
Network segmentation and unauthorized-access protections reduce the chance of resources being reachable by the wrong sphere.
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.
Placing systems of differing trust levels into separate domains prevents resources from being placed in a sphere where they are reachable by unintended actors.
Requiring owners to manage the full asset life cycle and remove assets from the inventory upon secure disposal helps prevent resources from being inadvertently exposed outside their intended security sphere.
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 (2 rules)
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-668
- V-248823 OL 8 must not have the telnet-server package installed. prevents CWE-668
RHEL 7 (1 rule)
- V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-668
Windows 10 (1 rule)
- V-220967 The Debug programs user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. prevents CWE-668
Windows 11 (1 rule)
- V-253490 The "Debug programs" user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. prevents CWE-668
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
- V-225079 The Debug programs user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. prevents CWE-668
Windows Server 2019 (1 rule)
- V-205757 Windows Server 2019 Debug programs: user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. prevents CWE-668
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
- V-254500 Windows Server 2022 debug programs user right must only be assigned to the Administrators group. prevents CWE-668