Local privilege escalation via incomplete fork cleanup
Published Nov 11, 2024 · Updated Aug 5, 2026
Use-after-free in Linux kernel 6.8 through 6.11.6 allows local users to gain kernel privileges by forcing an error during fork processing. dup_mmap() exposes an incompletely duplicated maple tree to khugepaged and KSM before the fork succeeds, so failed cleanup leaves their scanners traversing stale or freed VMA objects. An unprivileged account can combine MADV_HUGEPAGE or MADV_MERGEABLE with a forced fork error to crash the kernel or obtain arbitrary kernel reads and writes.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in Linux kernel 6.8 through 6.11.6 allows local users to gain kernel privileges by forcing an error during fork processing. dup_mmap() exposes an incompletely duplicated maple tree to khugepaged and KSM before the fork succeeds, so failed cleanup leaves their scanners traversing stale or freed VMA objects. An unprivileged account can combine MADV_HUGEPAGE or MADV_MERGEABLE with a forced fork error to crash the kernel or obtain arbitrary kernel reads and writes.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-50263
- Published
- Nov 11, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 5, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 11, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 5, 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=d2406291483775ecddaee929231a39c70c08fda2 <3b85aa0da8cd01173b9afd1f70080fbb9576c4b0
- Affected versionversion=d2406291483775ecddaee929231a39c70c08fda2 <985da552a98e27096444508ce5d853244019111f
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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