CVE-2024-50176

What it actually does

Incomplete error handling in the k3-r5 remoteproc driver violates the invariant that both cores must be initialized or neither, allowing the first core to be registered while leaving the second uninitialized and causing later NULL dereference on shutdown.

Why it matters to the business

Systems using affected TI K3 SoCs may experience unexpected kernel crashes or instability during device power management or shutdown, leading to operational downtime and potential data loss in embedded or industrial deployments.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker or faulty hardware triggers a power-up failure path in the driver; the code bails out without cleaning up the first core, leaving the system in an inconsistent state that later crashes when shutdown code attempts to dereference the missing second instance. Threat actors listed in campaigns targeting Linux kernel resource and bounds issues could combine this with other primitives to achieve denial of service.

How to fix it

Update the Linux kernel to commit 0c3836482481200ead7b416ca80c68a29cfdaabd or later in the affected GIT tree; rebuild and deploy the updated kernel image on all K3-based devices.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the running kernel contains commit 0c3836482481200ead7b416ca80c68a29cfdaabd; exercise remoteproc power-up failure paths in a test environment and verify both cores are either initialized or fully cleaned up without subsequent crashes.

Typical attack path

1. Trigger remoteproc power-up failure condition on a K3 platform
2. Driver exits early without symmetric initialization of both cores
3. System continues operation with partial state
4. On shutdown or rproc stop, code dereferences uninitialized second instance causing panic

How to detect it

Review kernel logs for oops/panic traces mentioning remoteproc or k3-r5 during shutdown; look for asymmetric core initialization messages or missing second rproc instances in debug output.

What your security team should do

• Prioritize kernel updates on all TI K3 platforms within standard change windows
• Include remoteproc error paths in regression test suites
• Monitor for kernel oops or panic logs referencing k3_r5 during power or shutdown events