Local service interruption via leaked child-node reference
Published Nov 8, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
Memory leak in Linux 6.8 through 6.11.4 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through an Intel pinctrl error path. An early return in intel_platform_pinctrl_prepare_community omits fwnode_handle_put, leaving the parsed child node's reference count elevated. Triggering requires local low-privilege access and the driver's error path; repeated triggers can interrupt service through memory exhaustion.
Summary
What happened
Memory leak in Linux 6.8 through 6.11.4 allows local users to exhaust kernel memory through an Intel pinctrl error path. An early return in intel_platform_pinctrl_prepare_community omits fwnode_handle_put, leaving the parsed child node's reference count elevated. Triggering requires local low-privilege access and the driver's error path; repeated triggers can interrupt service through memory exhaustion.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-50197
- Published
- Nov 8, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-401, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 8, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=6.8
- Affected versionversion=c5860e4a2737a8b29dc426c800d01c5be6aad811 <16a6d2e685e8f9a2f51dd5a363d3f97fcad35e22
- Affected versionversion=c5860e4a2737a8b29dc426c800d01c5be6aad811 <be3f7b9f995a6c2ee02767a0319929a2a98adf69
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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