Linux Kernel up to 5.15.169/6.1.114/6.6.58/6.11.5 Null Character strlen buffer overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.169/6.1.114/6.6.58/6.11.5. Affected by this vulnerability is the function strlen of the component Null Character Handler. The manipulation leads to buffer overflow. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-50131. No exploit exists. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.169/6.1.114/6.6.58/6.11.5 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function strlen of the component Null Character Handler. 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: tracing: Consider the NULL character when validating the event length strlen() returns a string length excluding the null byte. If the string length equals to the maximum buffer length, the buffer will have no space for the NULL terminating character. This commit checks this condition and returns failure for it.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-50131 since 10/21/2024. 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 07/22/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 212779 (CBL Mariner 2.0 Security Update: kernel (CVE-2024-50131)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.170, 6.1.115, 6.6.59 or 6.11.6 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b86b0d6eea20/f4ed40d1c669/a14a075a14af/5fd942598dde/0b6e2e22cb23 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 (212779) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-3339). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source eCryptfs
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.169
• 6.1.114
• 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
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.11.0
• 6.11.1
• 6.11.2
• 6.11.3
• 6.11.4
• 6.11.5

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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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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