NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-uek-container package, versions <0:5.15.0-305.176.4.el9uek


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Oracle Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.04% (6th percentile)

Do your applications use this vulnerable package?

In a few clicks we can analyze your entire application and see what components are vulnerable in your application, and suggest you quick fixes.

Test your applications

Snyk Learn

Learn about NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerabilities in an interactive lesson.

Start learning
  • Snyk IDSNYK-ORACLE9-KERNELUEKCONTAINER-8712393
  • published12 Feb 2025
  • disclosed2 Dec 2024

Introduced: 2 Dec 2024

CVE-2024-53113  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Oracle:9 kernel-uek-container to version 0:5.15.0-305.176.4.el9uek or higher.
This issue was patched in ELSA-2025-20095.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-uek-container package and not the kernel-uek-container package as distributed by Oracle. See How to fix? for Oracle:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

mm: fix NULL pointer dereference in alloc_pages_bulk_noprof

We triggered a NULL pointer dereference for ac.preferred_zoneref->zone in alloc_pages_bulk_noprof() when the task is migrated between cpusets.

When cpuset is enabled, in prepare_alloc_pages(), ac->nodemask may be &current->mems_allowed. when first_zones_zonelist() is called to find preferred_zoneref, the ac->nodemask may be modified concurrently if the task is migrated between different cpusets. Assuming we have 2 NUMA Node, when traversing Node1 in ac->zonelist, the nodemask is 2, and when traversing Node2 in ac->zonelist, the nodemask is 1. As a result, the ac->preferred_zoneref points to NULL zone.

In alloc_pages_bulk_noprof(), for_each_zone_zonelist_nodemask() finds a allowable zone and calls zonelist_node_idx(ac.preferred_zoneref), leading to NULL pointer dereference.

__alloc_pages_noprof() fixes this issue by checking NULL pointer in commit ea57485af8f4 ("mm, page_alloc: fix check for NULL preferred_zone") and commit df76cee6bbeb ("mm, page_alloc: remove redundant checks from alloc fastpath").

To fix it, check NULL pointer for preferred_zoneref->zone.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1