Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-36281)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-36281). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.6.33, 6.9.4 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

net/mlx5: Use mlx5_ipsec_rx_status_destroy to correctly delete status rules

rx_create no longer allocates a modify_hdr instance that needs to be
cleaned up. The mlx5_modify_header_dealloc call will lead to a NULL pointer
dereference. A leak in the rules also previously occurred since there are
now two rules populated related to status.

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
PGD 109907067 P4D 109907067 PUD 116890067 PMD 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
CPU: 1 PID: 484 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.9.0-rc2-rrameshbabu+ #254
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS Arch Linux 1.16.3-1-1 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:mlx5_modify_header_dealloc+0xd/0x70

Call Trace:

? show_regs+0x60/0x70
? __die+0x24/0x70
? page_fault_oops+0x15f/0x430
? free_to_partial_list.constprop.0+0x79/0x150
? do_user_addr_fault+0x2c9/0x5c0
? exc_page_fault+0x63/0x110
? asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30
? mlx5_modify_header_dealloc+0xd/0x70
rx_create+0x374/0x590
rx_add_rule+0x3ad/0x500
? rx_add_rule+0x3ad/0x500
? mlx5_cmd_exec+0x2c/0x40
? mlx5_create_ipsec_obj+0xd6/0x200
mlx5e_accel_ipsec_fs_add_rule+0x31/0xf0
mlx5e_xfrm_add_state+0x426/0xc00

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-36281 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.6.33, 6.9.4 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2024-36281" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2024-36281 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.6.33, 6.9.4 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 6.6.33, 6.9.4.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 6.6.33, 6.9.4
```
ステージング環境で 6.6.33, 6.9.4 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"6.6.33"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.9.4"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2024-36281 linux Fixed in: 6.9.7-1