NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2024-56544

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: udmabuf: change folios array from kmalloc to kvmalloc When PAGE_SIZE 4096, MAX_PAGE_ORDER 10, 64bit machine, page_alloc only support 4MB. If above this, trigger this warn and return NULL. udmabuf can change size limit, if change it to 3072(3GB), and then alloc 3GB udmabuf, will fail create. [ 4080.876581] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 4080.876843] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 2015 at mm/page_alloc.c:4556 __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350 [ 4080.878839] RIP: 0010:__alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350 [ 4080.879470] Call Trace: [ 4080.879473] <TASK> [ 4080.879473] ? __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350 [ 4080.879475] ? __warn.cold+0x8e/0xe8 [ 4080.880647] ? __alloc_pages+0x2c8/0x350 [ 4080.880909] ? report_bug+0xff/0x140 [ 4080.881175] ? handle_bug+0x3c/0x80 [ 4080.881556] ? exc_invalid_op+0x17/0x70 [ 4080.881559] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 [ 4080.882077] ? udmabuf_create+0x131/0x400 Because MAX_PAGE_ORDER, kmalloc can max alloc 4096 * (1 << 10), 4MB memory, each array entry is pointer(8byte), so can save 524288 pages(2GB). Further more, costly order(order 3) may not be guaranteed that it can be applied for, due to fragmentation. This patch change udmabuf array use kvmalloc_array, this can fallback alloc into vmalloc, which can guarantee allocation for any size and does not affect the performance of kmalloc allocations.

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: 0.002 (10.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 11th percentile — 10.8% 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-2024-56544: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-56544?
CVE-2024-56544 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2024-12-27.
How severe is CVE-2024-56544?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2024-56544 known to be exploited?
1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.