Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2024-53111

Medium · 5.5

CVSS

5.5

EPSS

0.2%

Published

Dec 2, 2024

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A Linux kernel bug on older 32-bit computers can cause certain memory-moving operations to accidentally erase data inside programs.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Local User
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Data Tampering
Component
OS kernel
Class
Memory Corruption
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Address wraparound in move_page_tables() on 32-bit causes mremap() to incorrectly conclude PTEs were copied, bail out without restoring mappings, and leave anonymous pages unmapped and zeroed.

Why it matters to the business

Applications performing large mremap operations on 32-bit Linux systems can silently lose private memory contents, leading to application crashes, data corruption, or unexpected behavior that affects reliability of services and workloads.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker or malicious process maps two regions on a 32-bit kernel, issues an mremap call with parameters that trigger integer wraparound in the len + old_addr check, and observes that the source region contents are zeroed after the call fails.

How to fix it

Upgrade the Linux kernel to a version containing commit 909543dc279a91122fb08e4653a72b82f0ad28f4 or later stable backports; rebuild and reboot affected 32-bit systems.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the presence of commit 909543dc279a91122fb08e4653a72b82f0ad28f4 in the running kernel source or verify the rearranged comparison (old_end - len) exists in mm/mremap.c; re-run the provided test case to ensure mremap succeeds and data is preserved.

Typical attack path

  1. Identify or create a 32-bit Linux environment
  2. Map a large private-anonymous region at a high address near wrap boundary
  3. Map a second region at a lower address
  4. Invoke mremap with MREMAP_MAYMOVE|MREMAP_FIXED using sizes that cause old_addr + len to wrap
  5. Observe mremap failure and zeroed contents in the original mapping

How to detect it

Examine kernel logs for mremap failures on 32-bit systems combined with unexpected zeroed memory regions in user-space processes; correlate with application-level reports of data loss after mremap calls.

What your security team should do

  • Prioritize kernel updates on all 32-bit systems within standard patching windows
  • Review any internal code or third-party libraries that perform large mremap operations
  • Monitor upstream stable kernel releases for additional related fixes

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: mm/mremap: fix address wraparound in move_page_tables() On 32-bit platforms, it is possible for the expression `len + old_addr < old_end` to be false-positive if `len + old_addr` wraps around. `old_addr` is the cursor in the old range up to which page table entries have been moved; so if the operation succeeded, `old_addr` is the *end* of the old region, and adding `len` to it can wrap. The overflow causes mremap() to mistakenly believe that PTEs have been copied; the consequence is that mremap() bails out, but doesn't move the PTEs back before the new VMA is unmapped, causing anonymous pages in the region to be lost. So basically if userspace tries to mremap() a private-anon region and hits this bug, mremap() will return an error and the private-anon region's contents appear to have been zeroed. The idea of this check is that `old_end - len` is the original start address, and writing the check that way also makes it easier to read; so fix the check by rearranging the comparison accordingly. (An alternate fix would be to refactor this function by introducing an "orig_old_start" variable or such.) Tested in a VM with a 32-bit X86 kernel; without the patch: ``` user@horn:~/big_mremap$ cat test.c #define _GNU_SOURCE #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <err.h> #include <sys/mman.h> #define ADDR1 ((void*)0x60000000) #define ADDR2 ((void*)0x10000000) #define SIZE 0x50000000uL int main(void) { unsigned char *p1 = mmap(ADDR1, SIZE, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED_NOREPLACE, -1, 0); if (p1 == MAP_FAILED) err(1, "mmap 1"); unsigned char *p2 = mmap(ADDR2, SIZE, PROT_NONE, MAP_ANONYMOUS|MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED_NOREPLACE, -1, 0); if (p2 == MAP_FAILED) err(1, "mmap 2"); *p1 = 0x41; printf("first char is 0x%02hhx\n", *p1); unsigned char *p3 = mremap(p1, SIZE, SIZE, MREMAP_MAYMOVE|MREMAP_FIXED, p2); if (p3 == MAP_FAILED) { printf("mremap() failed; first char is 0x%02hhx\n", *p1); } else { printf("mremap() succeeded; first char is 0x%02hhx\n", *p3); } } user@horn:~/big_mremap$ gcc -static -o test test.c user@horn:~/big_mremap$ setarch -R ./test first char is 0x41 mremap() failed; first char is 0x00 ``` With the patch: ``` user@horn:~/big_mremap$ setarch -R ./test first char is 0x41 mremap() succeeded; first char is 0x41 ```

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Debian:13 linux 0 6.11.10-1
Linux Kernel 6.7.0 6.11.10
SUSE:Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP6 kernel-default 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-default 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6-RT_Update_7 0 1-150600.1.3.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_7 0 1-150600.13.3.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-64kb 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-default 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-default-base 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1.150600.12.14.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-source 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 kernel-zfcpdump 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 kernel-coco 0 6.4.0-15061.12.coco15sp6.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 kernel-coco_debug 0 6.4.0-15061.12.coco15sp6.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 kernel-source-coco 0 6.4.0-15061.12.coco15sp6.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Confidential Computing Technical Preview 15 SP6 kernel-syms-coco 0 6.4.0-15061.12.coco15sp6.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-docs 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-obs-build 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-source 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Development Tools 15 SP6 kernel-syms 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP6 kernel-default 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 kernel-azure 0 6.4.0-150600.8.23.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 kernel-source-azure 0 6.4.0-150600.8.23.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP6 kernel-syms-azure 0 6.4.0-150600.8.23.1
SUSE:Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP6 kernel-default 0 6.4.0-150600.23.33.1
SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-rt 0 6.4.0-150600.10.23.1
SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-rt_debug 0 6.4.0-150600.10.23.1
SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-source-rt 0 6.4.0-150600.10.23.1
SUSE:Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-syms-rt 0 6.4.0-150600.10.23.1
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS linux 0 3.11.0-12.19
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS linux-aws 0 4.4.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS linux-azure 0 4.15.0-1023.24~14.04.1
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS linux-lts-xenial 0 4.4.0-13.29~14.04.1
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux 0 4.4.0-2.16
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-aws 0 4.4.0-1001.10
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-aws-hwe 0 4.15.0-1030.31~16.04.1
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-azure 0 4.11.0-1009.9
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 4.10.0-1004.4
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-hwe 0 4.8.0-39.42~16.04.1
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-hwe-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 4.4.0-1004.9
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 4.15.0-1007.9~16.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux 0 4.13.0-16.19
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws 0 4.15.0-1001.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.4 0 5.4.0-1018.18~18.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-4.15 0 4.15.0-1082.92
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-5.4 0 5.4.0-1020.20~18.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-4.15 0 4.15.0-1071.81
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.4 0 5.4.0-1019.19~18.04.2
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gke-4.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gke-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gkeop-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-hwe 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.4 0 5.4.0-37.41~18.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-hwe-edge 0 5.0.0-15.16~18.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-ibm-5.4 0 5.4.0-1010.11~18.04.2
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 4.15.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oem 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 4.15.0-1007.9
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.4 0 5.4.0-1019.19~18.04.1
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-raspi-5.4 0 5.4.0-1013.13~18.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux 0 5.4.0-9.12
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws 0 5.4.0-1005.5
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.15 0 5.15.0-1014.18~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure 0 5.4.0-1006.6
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.15 0 5.15.0-1007.8~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-fde 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-bluefield 0 5.4.0-1007.10
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 5.4.0-1005.5
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.15 0 5.15.0-1006.9~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gke 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gke-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gkeop 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gkeop-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.15 0 5.15.0-33.34~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 5.4.0-1003.4
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-ibm-5.15 0 5.15.0-1033.36~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-intel-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-intel-iotg-5.15 0 5.15.0-1003.5~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-iot 0 5.4.0-1001.3
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 5.4.0-1004.4
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 0 5.15.0-33.34~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.10 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.14 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.6 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 5.4.0-1005.5
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.15 0 5.15.0-1007.9~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 5.4.0-1007.7
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-raspi2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.15 0 5.15.0-1015.17~20.04.1
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-xilinx-zynqmp 0 5.4.0-1020.24
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux 0 5.13.0-19.19
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-allwinner-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws 0 5.13.0-1005.6
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.8 0 6.8.0-1027.29~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure 0 5.13.0-1006.7
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.8 0 6.8.0-1027.32~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 5.13.0-1005.6
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.8 0 6.8.0-1028.30~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gke 0 5.15.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gkeop 0 5.15.0-1001.2
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.8 0 6.8.0-58.60~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 5.15.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-ibm-6.8 0 6.8.0-1024.24~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-intel-iot-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-intel-iot-realtime 0 5.15.0-1021.26
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-intel-iotg 0 5.15.0-1004.6
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 5.13.0-1004.4
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency 0 5.15.0-22.22
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 0 6.8.0-58.60.1~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia 0 5.15.0-1005.5
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 0 6.8.0-1026.29~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-5.17 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.1 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 5.13.0-1008.10
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle-6.8 0 6.8.0-1024.25~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 5.13.0-1008.9
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-6.8 0 6.8.0-58.60.1~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-xilinx-zynqmp 0 5.15.0-1022.26
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS:for:NVIDIA:BlueField linux-bluefield 0 5.15.0-1011.13
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux 0 6.8.0-58.60
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-aws 0 6.8.0-1027.29
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure 0 6.8.0-1027.32
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure-6.11 0 6.11.0-1012.12~24.04.1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure-fde 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure-nvidia 0 6.8.0-1014.15
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 6.8.0-1028.30
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.11 0 6.11.0-1011.11~24.04.1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gke 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gke 0 6.8.0-1023.27

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