Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2024-58051: Linux Kernel NULL pointer dereference in IPMB driver

CVE-2024-58051 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2025-03-06

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) driver could allow a local user to cause a system crash. The issue occurs because the system does not properly handle memory allocation failures when setting up certain hardware communication interfaces. This could lead to a denial-of-service, impacting the availability of servers and management operations.

Technical details

A NULL pointer dereference vulnerability exists in the Linux kernel's IPMB (IPM over Bus) driver within the `ipmb_probe` function in `drivers/char/ipmi/ipmb_dev_int.c`. The vulnerability is caused by a failure to check the return value of `devm_kasprintf()`, which can return NULL if memory allocation fails. If NULL is returned and subsequently used to populate `ipmb_dev->miscdev.name`, it leads to a kernel panic or crash during device registration. This is a local attack vector requiring low privileges, primarily resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS). Patches have been released across multiple stable kernel branches.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 5.3 to 5.4.291, 5.5 to 5.10.235, 5.11 to 5.15.179, 5.16 to 6.1.129, 6.2 to 6.6.76, 6.7 to 6.12.13, 6.13 to 6.13.2

Timeline

  • 2024-09-26: patched: Initial patch submitted by Charles Han
  • 2025-03-06: disclosed: CVE published

References

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