CVE-2024-56549: cachefiles: Fix NULL pointer dereference in object->file

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-12-27 · updated 2026-10-15
Weakness: CWE-476

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cachefiles: Fix NULL pointer dereference in object->file At present, the object->file has the NULL pointer dereference problem in ondemand-mode. The root cause is that the allocated fd and object->file lifetime are inconsistent, and the user-space invocation to anon_fd uses object->file. Following is the process that triggers the issue: [write fd] [umount] cachefiles_ondemand_fd_write_iter fscache_cookie_state_machine cachefiles_withdraw_cookie if (!file) return -ENOBUFS cachefiles_clean_up_object cachefiles_unmark_inode_in_use fput(object->file) object->file = NULL // file NULL pointer dereference! __cachefiles_write(..., file, ...) Fix this issue by add an additional reference count to the object->file before write/llseek, and decrement after it finished.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.19 before 6.11.11; from 6.12 before 6.12.2 — fixed in 6.11.11, 6.12.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 6.11.11, 6.12.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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