Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-40950)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-40950). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 6.9.7 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

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

mm: huge_memory: fix misused mapping_large_folio_support() for anon folios

When I did a large folios split test, a WARNING "[ 5059.122759][ T166]
Cannot split file folio to non-0 order" was triggered. But the test cases
are only for anonmous folios. while mapping_large_folio_support() is only
reasonable for page cache folios.

In split_huge_page_to_list_to_order(), the folio passed to
mapping_large_folio_support() maybe anonmous folio. The folio_test_anon()
check is missing. So the split of the anonmous THP is failed. This is
also the same for shmem_mapping(). We'd better add a check for both. But
the shmem_mapping() in __split_huge_page() is not involved, as for
anonmous folios, the end parameter is set to -1, so (head[i].index >= end)
is always false. shmem_mapping() is not called.

Also add a VM_WARN_ON_ONCE() in mapping_large_folio_support() for anon
mapping, So we can detect the wrong use more easily.

THP folios maybe exist in the pagecache even the file system doesn't
support large folio, it is because when CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE is
enabled, khugepaged will try to collapse read-only file-backed pages to
THP. But the mapping does not actually support multi order large folios
properly.

Using /sys/kernel/debug/split_huge_pages to verify this, with this patch,
large anon THP is successfully split and the warning is ceased.

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-2024-40950 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 6.9.7 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2024-40950" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2024-40950 (Kernel)
Patched: 6.9.7 — 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 6.9.7.

🛡️ 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 6.9.7
```
ステージング環境で 6.9.7 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":"6.9.0"},{"fixed":"6.9.7"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2024-40950 linux Fixed in: 6.9.7-1