NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2024-53131

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: fix null-ptr-deref in block_touch_buffer tracepoint Patch series "nilfs2: fix null-ptr-deref bugs on block tracepoints". This series fixes null pointer dereference bugs that occur when using nilfs2 and two block-related tracepoints. This patch (of 2): It has been reported that when using "block:block_touch_buffer" tracepoint, touch_buffer() called from __nilfs_get_folio_block() causes a NULL pointer dereference, or a general protection fault when KASAN is enabled. This happens because since the tracepoint was added in touch_buffer(), it references the dev_t member bh->b_bdev->bd_dev regardless of whether the buffer head has a pointer to a block_device structure. In the current implementation, the block_device structure is set after the function returns to the caller. Here, touch_buffer() is used to mark the folio/page that owns the buffer head as accessed, but the common search helper for folio/page used by the caller function was optimized to mark the folio/page as accessed when it was reimplemented a long time ago, eliminating the need to call touch_buffer() here in the first place. So this solves the issue by eliminating the touch_buffer() call itself.

EPSS: 0.002 (14.7th 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-2024-53131?
CVE-2024-53131 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2024-12-04.
How severe is CVE-2024-53131?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-53131 known to be exploited?
2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.