NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2024-48881

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bcache: revert replacing IS_ERR_OR_NULL with IS_ERR again Commit 028ddcac477b ("bcache: Remove unnecessary NULL point check in node allocations") leads a NULL pointer deference in cache_set_flush(). 1721 if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(c->root)) 1722 list_add(&c->root->list, &c->btree_cache); >From the above code in cache_set_flush(), if previous registration code fails before allocating c->root, it is possible c->root is NULL as what it is initialized. __bch_btree_node_alloc() never returns NULL but c->root is possible to be NULL at above line 1721. This patch replaces IS_ERR() by IS_ERR_OR_NULL() to fix this.

Published · last modified .

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.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (15.2th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 15th percentile — 15.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2024-48881: held from 0.003 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 0729029e647234fa1a94376b6edffec5c2cd75f6, 0cabf9e164660e8d66c4810396046383a1110a69, 6.4.4
  • Linux Kernel — versions 6.13

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-48881?
CVE-2024-48881 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-01-11.
How severe is CVE-2024-48881?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-48881 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.