NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2024-40945

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: iommu: Return right value in iommu_sva_bind_device() iommu_sva_bind_device() should return either a sva bond handle or an ERR_PTR value in error cases. Existing drivers (idxd and uacce) only check the return value with IS_ERR(). This could potentially lead to a kernel NULL pointer dereference issue if the function returns NULL instead of an error pointer. In reality, this doesn't cause any problems because iommu_sva_bind_device() only returns NULL when the kernel is not configured with CONFIG_IOMMU_SVA. In this case, iommu_dev_enable_feature(dev, IOMMU_DEV_FEAT_SVA) will return an error, and the device drivers won't call iommu_sva_bind_device() at all.

EPSS: 0.003 (17.3th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-40945?
CVE-2024-40945 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2024-07-12.
How severe is CVE-2024-40945?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-40945 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.