Linux Kernel up to 6.9.8 kfree_sensitive buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.221/5.15.162/6.1.97/6.6.38/6.9.8 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function kfree_sensitive. The manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2024-42229. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.221/5.15.162/6.1.97/6.6.38/6.9.8 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function kfree_sensitive. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a buffer overflow vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to 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. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: aead,cipher - zeroize key buffer after use I.G 9.7.B for FIPS 140-3 specifies that variables temporarily holding cryptographic information should be zeroized once they are no longer needed. Accomplish this by using kfree_sensitive for buffers that previously held the private key.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-42229 since 07/30/2024. The exploitation is known to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/19/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 207738 (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7009-2)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.10.222, 5.15.163, 6.1.98, 6.6.39 or 6.9.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 9db8c299a521/71dd42861537/28c8d274848f/b502d4a08875/f58679996a83/23e4099bdc3c 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 (207738) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-1722). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium
• Oracle Linux
• NetApp FAS
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• Siemens SIMATIC S7
• Oracle VM
• IBM Security Guardium
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Broadcom Brocade SANnav
• Dell PowerScale
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell integrated Dell Remote Access Controller
• IBM Storage Scale
• IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
• Juniper Junos Space
• IBM Storage Scale System
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.221
• 5.15.162
• 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
• 6.1.93
• 6.1.94
• 6.1.95
• 6.1.96
• 6.1.97
• 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
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.9.0
• 6.9.1
• 6.9.2
• 6.9.3
• 6.9.4
• 6.9.5
• 6.9.6
• 6.9.7
• 6.9.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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