Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6 fork __mt_dup allocation of resources

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6. This vulnerability affects the function __mt_dup of the component fork. Such manipulation leads to allocation of resources. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2024-50263. No exploit is available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6. Affected by this issue is the function __mt_dup of the component fork. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a allocation of resources vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-770. The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fork: only invoke khugepaged, ksm hooks if no error There is no reason to invoke these hooks early against an mm that is in an incomplete state. The change in commit d24062914837 ("fork: use __mt_dup() to duplicate maple tree in dup_mmap()") makes this more pertinent as we may be in a state where entries in the maple tree are not yet consistent. Their placement early in dup_mmap() only appears to have been meaningful for early error checking, and since functionally it'd require a very small allocation to fail (in practice 'too small to fail') that'd only occur in the most dire circumstances, meaning the fork would fail or be OOM'd in any case. Since both khugepaged and KSM tracking are there to provide optimisations to memory performance rather than critical functionality, it doesn't really matter all that much if, under such dire memory pressure, we fail to register an mm with these. As a result, we follow the example of commit d2081b2bf819 ("mm: khugepaged: make khugepaged_enter() void function") and make ksm_fork() a void function also. We only expose the mm to these functions once we are done with them and only if no error occurred in the fork operation.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-50263 since 10/21/2024. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216493 (Ubuntu 24.10 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7276-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.11.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 3b85aa0da8cd/985da552a98e 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 vulnerability database at Tenable (216493). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.11.0
• 6.11.1
• 6.11.2
• 6.11.3
• 6.11.4
• 6.11.5
• 6.11.6

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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