CVE-2024-35846

mm: zswap: fix shrinker NULL crash with cgroup_disable=memory

Published May 17, 2024 CVSS 3.1 · 5.5 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm: zswap: fix shrinker NULL crash with cgroup_disable=memory

Christian reports a NULL deref in zswap that he bisected down to the zswap
shrinker. The issue also cropped up in the bug trackers of libguestfs [1]
and the Red Hat bugzilla [2].

The problem is that when memcg is disabled with the boot time flag, the
zswap shrinker might get called with sc->memcg == NULL. This is okay in
many places, like the lruvec operations. But it crashes in
memcg_page_state() - which is only used due to the non-node accounting of
cgroup's the zswap memory to begin with.

Nhat spotted that the memcg can be NULL in the memcg-disabled case, and I
was then able to reproduce the crash locally as well.

[1] https://github.com/libguestfs/libguestfs/issues/139
[2] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2275252

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6949-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6949-2 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6952-1 Linux kernel vulnerabilities
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-6955-1 Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Weaknesses CWE-476
CPEs cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.9:rc5:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linux
Linux linux Kernel
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
Linux
Published
Updated
May 11, 2026, 8:12 PM
Reserved
May 17, 2024, 1:50 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
May 17, 2024, 3:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 7:35 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
May 17, 2024, 12:00 AM