ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init()
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 fixed, 4 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-908 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipvs: fix UB due to uninitialized stack access in ip_vs_protocol_init() Under certain kernel configurations when building with Clang/LLVM, the compiler does not generate a return or jump as the terminator instruction for ip_vs_protocol_init(), triggering the following objtool warning during build time: vmlinux.o: warning: objtool: ip_vs_protocol_init() falls through to next function __initstub__kmod_ip_vs_rr__935_123_ip_vs_rr_init6() At runtime, this either causes an oops when trying to load the ipvs module or a boot-time panic if ipvs is built-in. This same issue has been reported by the Intel kernel test robot previously. Digging deeper into both LLVM and the kernel code reveals this to be a undefined behavior problem. ip_vs_protocol_init() uses a on-stack buffer of 64 chars to store the registered protocol names and leaves it uninitialized after definition. The function calls strnlen() when concatenating protocol names into the buffer. With CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE strnlen() performs an extra step to check whether the last byte of the input char buffer is a null character (commit 3009f891bb9f ("fortify: Allow strlen() and strnlen() to pass compile-time known lengths")). This, together with possibly other configurations, cause the following IR to be generated: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #5 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !29 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 14: ; preds = %11 %15 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 %16 = load i8, ptr %15, align 1 %17 = tail call i1 @llvm.is.constant.i8(i8 %16) %18 = icmp eq i8 %16, 0 %19 = select i1 %17, i1 %18, i1 false br i1 %19, label %20, label %23 20: ; preds = %14 %21 = call i64 @strlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1) #23 ... 23: ; preds = %14, %11, %20 %24 = call i64 @strnlen(ptr noundef nonnull dereferenceable(1) %1, i64 noundef 64) #24 ... } The above code calculates the address of the last char in the buffer (value %15) and then loads from it (value %16). Because the buffer is never initialized, the LLVM GVN pass marks value %16 as undefined: %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 br i1 undef, label %14, label %17 This gives later passes (SCCP, in particular) more DCE opportunities by propagating the undef value further, and eventually removes everything after the load on the uninitialized stack location: define hidden i32 @ip_vs_protocol_init() local_unnamed_addr #0 section ".init.text" align 16 !kcfi_type !11 { %1 = alloca [64 x i8], align 16 ... 12: ; preds = %11 %13 = getelementptr inbounds i8, ptr %1, i64 63 unreachable } In this way, the generated native code will just fall through to the next function, as LLVM does not generate any code for the unreachable IR instruction and leaves the function without a terminator. Zero the on-stack buffer to avoid this possible UB.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 2.6.12 and later | 5.4.287, 5.10.231, 5.15.174, 6.1.120, 6.6.66, 6.12.5, 6.13 | Patch available | CNA |
- Linux VendorLinux Affected 2.6.12 and later Fixed in 5.4.287, 5.10.231, 5.15.174, 6.1.120, 6.6.66, 6.12.5, 6.13 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 7
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.13 to before 5.4.287; 5.5 to before 5.10.231; 5.11 to before 5.15.174; 5.16 to before 6.1.120; 6.2 to before 6.6.66; 6.7 to before 6.12.5 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.12 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.12 rc2 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.12 rc3 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.12 rc4 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.12 rc5 | Vulnerable | Linux |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | 6.13 rc1 | Vulnerable | Linux |
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.13 to before 5.4.287; 5.5 to before 5.10.231; 5.11 to before 5.15.174; 5.16 to before 6.1.120; 6.2 to before 6.6.66; 6.7 to before 6.12.5 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:-:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.12 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.12 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.12 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.12 rc4 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.12:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.12 rc5 Vulnerable ·Linux
- cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 6.13 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.4.287, 5.10.231, 5.15.174, 6.1.120, 6.6.66, 6.12.5, 6.13
Red Hat 1 advisory
- RHSA-2025:20518 Released 2025-11-11 · Red Hat rating Moderatekernel security update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7 +12
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) kernel-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-64k-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-64k-core-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7 +28
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, libperf-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-rt-64k-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-rt-64k-core-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7 +21
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) kernel-rt-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-rt-core-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7, kernel-rt-debug-5.14.0-611.5.1.el9_7 +9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:20518 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:20518 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:20518 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:20518 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2025:20518 |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-53680
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-5f32-qq4v-9hch
References
Patch 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/31d1ddc1ce8e8d3f101a679243abb42a313ee88a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0b2cbed82b7c6504a8a0fbd181f92dd56b432c12
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d6e1776f51c95827142f1d7064118e255e2deec1
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/664d0feab92495b6a27edc3d1119e232c0fe8b2b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/124834133b32f9386bb2d8581d9ab92f65e951e4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/48130002e64fd191b7d18efeb4d253fcc23e4688
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/146b6f1112eb30a19776d6c323c994e9d67790db
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
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- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2024-53680 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-53680 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-5f32-qq4v-9hch · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2024-53680 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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