Linux Kernel up to 6.9.2 ring_buffer.c rb_get_reader_page buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.9.2 and classified as critical. This vulnerability affects the function rb_get_reader_page of the file kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c. The manipulation results in buffer overflow. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2024-38601. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.9.2. Affected is the function rb_get_reader_page of the file kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-120. The product copies an input buffer to an output buffer without verifying that the size of the input buffer is less than the size of the output buffer, leading to a buffer overflow. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ring-buffer: Fix a race between readers and resize checks The reader code in rb_get_reader_page() swaps a new reader page into the ring buffer by doing cmpxchg on old->list.prev->next to point it to the new page. Following that, if the operation is successful, old->list.next->prev gets updated too. This means the underlying doubly-linked list is temporarily inconsistent, page->prev->next or page->next->prev might not be equal back to page for some page in the ring buffer. The resize operation in ring_buffer_resize() can be invoked in parallel. It calls rb_check_pages() which can detect the described inconsistency and stop further tracing: [ 190.271762] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 190.271771] WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 6186 at kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c:1467 rb_check_pages.isra.0+0x6a/0xa0 [ 190.271789] Modules linked in: [...] [ 190.271991] Unloaded tainted modules: intel_uncore_frequency(E):1 skx_edac(E):1 [ 190.272002] CPU: 1 PID: 6186 Comm: cmd.sh Kdump: loaded Tainted: G E 6.9.0-rc6-default #5 158d3e1e6d0b091c34c3b96bfd99a1c58306d79f [ 190.272011] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552c-rebuilt.opensuse.org 04/01/2014 [ 190.272015] RIP: 0010:rb_check_pages.isra.0+0x6a/0xa0 [ 190.272023] Code: [...] [ 190.272028] RSP: 0018:ffff9c37463abb70 EFLAGS: 00010206 [ 190.272034] RAX: ffff8eba04b6cb80 RBX: 0000000000000007 RCX: ffff8eba01f13d80 [ 190.272038] RDX: ffff8eba01f130c0 RSI: ffff8eba04b6cd00 RDI: ffff8eba0004c700 [ 190.272042] RBP: ffff8eba0004c700 R08: 0000000000010002 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 190.272045] R10: 00000000ffff7f52 R11: ffff8eba7f600000 R12: ffff8eba0004c720 [ 190.272049] R13: ffff8eba00223a00 R14: 0000000000000008 R15: ffff8eba067a8000 [ 190.272053] FS: 00007f1bd64752c0(0000) GS:ffff8eba7f680000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 190.272057] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 190.272061] CR2: 00007f1bd6662590 CR3: 000000010291e001 CR4: 0000000000370ef0 [ 190.272070] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 190.272073] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 190.272077] Call Trace: [ 190.272098] [ 190.272189] ring_buffer_resize+0x2ab/0x460 [ 190.272199] __tracing_resize_ring_buffer.part.0+0x23/0xa0 [ 190.272206] tracing_resize_ring_buffer+0x65/0x90 [ 190.272216] tracing_entries_write+0x74/0xc0 [ 190.272225] vfs_write+0xf5/0x420 [ 190.272248] ksys_write+0x67/0xe0 [ 190.272256] do_syscall_64+0x82/0x170 [ 190.272363] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 190.272373] RIP: 0033:0x7f1bd657d263 [ 190.272381] Code: [...] [ 190.272385] RSP: 002b:00007ffe72b643f8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001 [ 190.272391] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 00007f1bd657d263 [ 190.272395] RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: 0000555a6eb538e0 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 190.272398] RBP: 0000555a6eb538e0 R08: 000000000000000a R09: 0000000000000000 [ 190.272401] R10: 0000555a6eb55190 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007f1bd6662500 [ 190.272404] R13: 0000000000000002 R14: 00007f1bd6667c00 R15: 0000000000000002 [ 190.272412] [ 190.272414] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Note that ring_buffer_resize() calls rb_check_pages() only if the parent trace_buffer has recording disabled. Recent commit d78ab792705c ("tracing: Stop current tracer when resizing buffer") causes that it is now always the case which makes it more likely to experience this issue. The window to hit this race is nonetheless very small. To help reproducing it, one can add a delay loop in rb_get_reader_page(): ret = rb_head_page_replace(reader, cpu_buffer->reader_page); if (!ret) goto spin; for (unsigned i = 0; i < 1U << 26; i++) /* inserted delay loop */ __asm__ __volatile__ ("" : : : "memory"); rb_list_head(reader->list.next)->prev = &cpu_buffer->reader_page->list; .. ---truncated---

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2024-38601 since 06/18/2024. The exploitability is told to be easy. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit. The structure of the vulnerability defines a possible price range of USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 10/05/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 207776 (Oracle Linux 9 : kernel (ELSA-2024-6997)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 4.19.316, 5.4.278, 5.10.219, 5.15.161, 6.1.93, 6.6.33, 6.8.12 or 6.9.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b50932ea673b/c68b7a442ee6/1e160196042c/595363182f28/54c64967ba5f/af3274905b31/5ef9e330406d/79b52013429a/c2274b908db0 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (207776) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-1418). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium
• Oracle Linux
• Oracle VM
• IBM Security Guardium
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Broadcom Brocade SANnav
• Dell NetWorker
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell Avamar
• IBM Storage Scale
• Juniper Junos Space
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 4.19.315
• 5.4.277
• 5.10.218
• 5.15.160
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.1.31
• 6.1.32
• 6.1.33
• 6.1.34
• 6.1.35
• 6.1.36
• 6.1.37
• 6.1.38
• 6.1.39
• 6.1.40
• 6.1.41
• 6.1.42
• 6.1.43
• 6.1.44
• 6.1.45
• 6.1.46
• 6.1.47
• 6.1.48
• 6.1.49
• 6.1.50
• 6.1.51
• 6.1.52
• 6.1.53
• 6.1.54
• 6.1.55
• 6.1.56
• 6.1.57
• 6.1.58
• 6.1.59
• 6.1.60
• 6.1.61
• 6.1.62
• 6.1.63
• 6.1.64
• 6.1.65
• 6.1.66
• 6.1.67
• 6.1.68
• 6.1.69
• 6.1.70
• 6.1.71
• 6.1.72
• 6.1.73
• 6.1.74
• 6.1.75
• 6.1.76
• 6.1.77
• 6.1.78
• 6.1.79
• 6.1.80
• 6.1.81
• 6.1.82
• 6.1.83
• 6.1.84
• 6.1.85
• 6.1.86
• 6.1.87
• 6.1.88
• 6.1.89
• 6.1.90
• 6.1.91
• 6.1.92
• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.8.0
• 6.8.1
• 6.8.2
• 6.8.3
• 6.8.4
• 6.8.5
• 6.8.6
• 6.8.7
• 6.8.8
• 6.8.9
• 6.8.10
• 6.8.11
• 6.9.0
• 6.9.1
• 6.9.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

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Entryinfo

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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