CVE-2024-50263

Medium

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fork: only invoke khugepaged, ksm hooks if no error There is no reason to invoke these hooks early against an mm that is in an incomplete state. The change in commit d24062914837 ("fork: use __mt_dup() to duplicate maple tree in dup_mmap()") makes this more pertinent as we may be in a state where entries in the maple tree are not yet consistent. Their placement early in dup_mmap() only appears to have been meaningful for early error checking, and since functionally it'd require a very small allocation to fail (in practice 'too small to fail') that'd only occur in the most dire circumstances, meaning the fork would fail or be OOM'd in any case. Since both khugepaged and KSM tracking are there to provide optimisations to memory performance rather than critical functionality, it doesn't really matter all that much if, under such dire memory pressure, we fail to register an mm with these. As a result, we follow the example of commit d2081b2bf819 ("mm: khugepaged: make khugepaged_enter() void function") and make ksm_fork() a void function also. We only expose the mm to these functions once we are done with them and only if no error occurred in the fork operation.

Package Linux Kernel
Published 2024-11-11
Last modified 2024-12-09
CVSS version 3.1
Patch available
Yes

CVSS 3.1 score

5.5

out of 10
Medium
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected versions

Linux kernel versions 6.8 and later are affected. Fixed in 6.11.7, 6.12 and their respective stable series.

Affected from
≥ 6.8
Fixed in
✓ 6.11.7 6.11.x ✓ 6.12

References

The following references provide additional information about CVE-2024-50263 including vendor advisories, patch commits, exploit details, and third-party analysis. Links are sourced from the NIST NVD database.

Frequently asked questions

  • What is CVE-2024-50263?

    CVE-2024-50263 is a Medium severity Linux kernel vulnerability with a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10 . It affects Linux kernel versions from 6.8 onward and has been patched in 6.11.7 and 6.12. CVE-2024-50263 has not been confirmed as actively exploited and is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

  • What is the CVSS score for CVE-2024-50263?

    CVE-2024-50263 has a CVSS score of 5.5 out of 10, rated Medium severity (CVSS 3.1). The vector string is CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H .

  • Is there a patch available for CVE-2024-50263?

    Yes — CVE-2024-50263 has been patched. Fixed versions include 6.11.7 and 6.12. If you are running Linux kernel 6.8 or later up to the fix versions, apply the relevant patch for your kernel branch.

  • Is CVE-2024-50263 actively exploited?

    No — CVE-2024-50263 has not been confirmed as actively exploited. It is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.