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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2024-36478 json

null_blk: fix null-ptr-dereference while configuring 'power' and 'submit_queues'

published 2024-06-21 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-36256

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 18%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

null_blk: fix null-ptr-dereference while configuring 'power' and 'submit_queues'

Writing 'power' and 'submit_queues' concurrently will trigger kernel panic:

Test script:

modprobe null_blk nr_devices=0 mkdir -p /sys/kernel/config/nullb/nullb0 while true; do echo 1 > submit_queues; echo 4 > submit_queues; done & while true; do echo 1 > power; echo 0 > power; done

Test result:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000148 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP RIP: 0010:__lock_acquire+0x41d/0x28f0 Call Trace: <TASK> lock_acquire+0x121/0x450 down_write+0x5f/0x1d0 simple_recursive_removal+0x12f/0x5c0 blk_mq_debugfs_unregister_hctxs+0x7c/0x100 blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues+0x4a3/0x720 nullb_update_nr_hw_queues+0x71/0xf0 [null_blk] nullb_device_submit_queues_store+0x79/0xf0 [null_blk] configfs_write_iter+0x119/0x1e0 vfs_write+0x326/0x730 ksys_write+0x74/0x150

This is because del_gendisk() can concurrent with blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues():

nullb_device_power_store nullb_apply_submit_queues null_del_dev del_gendisk nullb_update_nr_hw_queues if (!dev->nullb) // still set while gendisk is deleted return 0 blk_mq_update_nr_hw_queues dev->nullb = NULL

Fix this problem by resuing the global mutex to protect nullb_device_power_store() and nullb_update_nr_hw_queues() from configfs.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 6.1.119, 6.6.55, 6.9.4, 6.10
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.119-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.9.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-36478

  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-44.44
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1015.16
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1014.16
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1010.13
  • linux-ibm Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1012.12
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1014.16
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1011.12
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-44.44.1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-36478

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-9.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-9.1
  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-17.1.1.51
  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.5.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.5.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:20028-1SUSE-SU-2025:20008-1SUSE-SU-2024:2973-1SUSE-SU-2024:2939-1SUSE-SU-2024:2896-1SUSE-SU-2024:2571-1

  • kernel Azure Linux 3.0 6.6.57.1-1

azure linux advisories AZL-48962

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-36478 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: null_blk: fix null-ptr-dereference while configuring &#39;power&#39; and &#39;submit_queues&#39;

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.27% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 18% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.