CVE-2024-53680

MEDIUM
Published Jan 11, 2025 Modified Nov 3, 2025 CWE-908

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init() Under certain kernel configurations when building with Clang/LLVM, the compiler does not generate a return or jump as the terminator instruction for ip_vs_protocol_init(), triggering the following objtool warning during build time: vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: ip_vs_protocol_init() falls through to next function __initstub__kmod_ip_vs_rr__935_123_ip_vs_rr_init6() At runtime, this either causes an oops when trying to load the ipvs module or a boot-time panic if ipvs is built-in. This same issue has been reported by the Intel kernel test robot previously. Digging deeper into both LLVM and the kernel code reveals this to be a undefined behavior problem. ip_vs_protocol_init() uses a on-stack buffer of 64 chars to store the registered protocol names and leaves it uninitialized after definition. The function calls strnlen() when concatenating protocol names into the buffer. With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE strnlen() performs an extra step to check whether the last byte of the input char buffer is a null character (commit 3009f891bb9f ("fortify: Allow strlen() and strnlen() to pass compile-time known lengths")). This, together with possibly other configurations, cause the following IR to be generated: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #5 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !29 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 14: ; preds = %11 %15 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 %16 = load i8, ptr %15, align 1 %17 = tail call i1 @llvm.is.constant.i8(i8 %16) %18 = icmp eq i8 %16, 0 %19 = select i1 %17, i1 %18, i1 false br i1 %19, label %20, label %23 20: ; preds = %14 %21 = call i64 @strlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1) #23 ... 23: ; preds = %14, %11, %20 %24 = call i64 @strnlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1, i64 noundef 64) #24 ... } The above code calculates the address of the last char in the buffer (value %15) and then loads from it (value %16). Because the buffer is never initialized, the LLVM GVN pass marks value %16 as undefined: %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 br i1 undef, label %14, label %17 This gives later passes (SCCP, in particular) more DCE opportunities by propagating the undef value further, and eventually removes everything after the load on the uninitialized stack location: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #0 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !11 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 12: ; preds = %11 %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 unreachable } In this way, the generated native code will just fall through to the next function, as LLVM does not generate any code for the unreachable IR instruction and leaves the function without a terminator. Zero the on-stack buffer to avoid this possible UB.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-908 CWE-908

Affected Products

Vendor Product
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-53680? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init() Under certain kernel configurations when building with Clang/LLVM, the compiler does not generate a return or jump as the terminator instruction for ip_vs_protocol_init(), triggering the following objtool warning during build time: vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: ip_vs_protocol_init() falls through to next function __initstub__kmod_ip_vs_rr__935_123_ip_vs_rr_init6() At runtime, this either causes an oops when trying to load the ipvs module or a boot-time panic if ipvs is built-in. This same issue has been reported by the Intel kernel test robot previously. Digging deeper into both LLVM and the kernel code reveals this to be a undefined behavior problem. ip_vs_protocol_init() uses a on-stack buffer of 64 chars to store the registered protocol names and leaves it uninitialized after definition. The function calls strnlen() when concatenating protocol names into the buffer. With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE strnlen() performs an extra step to check whether the last byte of the input char buffer is a null character (commit 3009f891bb9f ("fortify: Allow strlen() and strnlen() to pass compile-time known lengths")). This, together with possibly other configurations, cause the following IR to be generated: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #5 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !29 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 14: ; preds = %11 %15 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 %16 = load i8, ptr %15, align 1 %17 = tail call i1 @llvm.is.constant.i8(i8 %16) %18 = icmp eq i8 %16, 0 %19 = select i1 %17, i1 %18, i1 false br i1 %19, label %20, label %23 20: ; preds = %14 %21 = call i64 @strlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1) #23 ... 23: ; preds = %14, %11, %20 %24 = call i64 @strnlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1, i64 noundef 64) #24 ... } The above code calculates the address of the last char in the buffer (value %15) and then loads from it (value %16). Because the buffer is never initialized, the LLVM GVN pass marks value %16 as undefined: %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 br i1 undef, label %14, label %17 This gives later passes (SCCP, in particular) more DCE opportunities by propagating the undef value further, and eventually removes everything after the load on the uninitialized stack location: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #0 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !11 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 12: ; preds = %11 %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 unreachable } In this way, the generated native code will just fall through to the next function, as LLVM does not generate any code for the unreachable IR instruction and leaves the function without a terminator. Zero the on-stack buffer to avoid this possible UB. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2024-53680? +
CVE-2024-53680 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.
What products are affected by CVE-2024-53680? +
CVE-2024-53680 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2024-53680? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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