Local kernel crash via nonexistent PFN conversion
Published Jan 11, 2025 · Updated May 11, 2026
NULL pointer dereference in Linux 6.10 through 6.12.6 and 6.13-rc1 through 6.13-rc3 allows local users to crash the kernel. split_large_buddy() calls pfn_to_page() on a potentially nonexistent PFN, causing __section_mem_map_addr() to dereference a NULL section pointer. The corner case requires CONFIG_SPARSEMEM without CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_EXTREME while freeing the highest pageblock in the final memory section.
Summary
What happened
NULL pointer dereference in Linux 6.10 through 6.12.6 and 6.13-rc1 through 6.13-rc3 allows local users to crash the kernel. split_large_buddy() calls pfn_to_page() on a potentially nonexistent PFN, causing __section_mem_map_addr() to dereference a NULL section pointer. The corner case requires CONFIG_SPARSEMEM without CONFIG_SPARSEMEM_EXTREME while freeing the highest pageblock in the final memory section.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-57881
- Published
- Jan 11, 2025
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-476, T1499
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 11, 2025CVE 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=6.10
- Affected versionversion=fd919a85cd55be5d00a6a7372071f44c8eafb825 <4234ca9884bcae9e48ed38652d91696ad5cd591d
- Affected versionversion=fd919a85cd55be5d00a6a7372071f44c8eafb825 <faeec8e23c10bd30e8aa759a2eb3018dae00f924
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.
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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