CVE-2024-50194
arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels
Published Nov 8, 2024
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5 Medium
EPSS < 1%
KEV · Not listed
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels
The arm64 uprobes code is broken for big-endian kernels as it doesn't
convert the in-memory instruction encoding (which is always
little-endian) into the kernel's native endianness before analyzing and
simulating instructions. This may result in a few distinct problems:
* The kernel may may erroneously reject probing an instruction which can
safely be probed.
* The kernel may erroneously erroneously permit stepping an
instruction out-of-line when that instruction cannot be stepped
out-of-line safely.
* The kernel may erroneously simulate instruction incorrectly dur to
interpretting the byte-swapped encoding.
The endianness mismatch isn't caught by the compiler or sparse because:
* The arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields are encoded as arrays of u8, so
the compiler and sparse have no idea these contain a little-endian
32-bit value. The core uprobes code populates these with a memcpy()
which similarly does not handle endianness.
* While the uprobe_opcode_t type is an alias for __le32, both
arch_uprobe_analyze_insn() and arch_uprobe_skip_sstep() cast from u8[]
to the similarly-named probe_opcode_t, which is an alias for u32.
Hence there is no endianness conversion warning.
Fix this by changing the arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields to __le32 and
adding the appropriate __le32_to_cpu() conversions prior to consuming
the instruction encoding. The core uprobes copies these fields as opaque
ranges of bytes, and so is unaffected by this change.
At the same time, remove MAX_UINSN_BYTES and consistently use
AARCH64_INSN_SIZE for clarity.
Tested with the following:
| #include <stdio.h>
| #include <stdbool.h>
|
| #define noinline __attribute__((noinline))
|
| static noinline void *adrp_self(void)
| {
| void *addr;
|
| asm volatile(
| " adrp %x0, adrp_self\n"
| " add %x0, %x0, :lo12:adrp_self\n"
| : "=r" (addr));
| }
|
|
| int main(int argc, char *argv)
| {
| void *ptr = adrp_self();
| bool equal = (ptr == adrp_self);
|
| printf("adrp_self => %p\n"
| "adrp_self() => %p\n"
| "%s\n",
| adrp_self, ptr, equal ? "EQUAL" : "NOT EQUAL");
|
| return 0;
| }
.... where the adrp_self() function was compiled to:
| 00000000004007e0 <adrp_self>:
| 4007e0: 90000000 adrp x0, 400000 <__ehdr_start>
| 4007e4: 911f8000 add x0, x0, #0x7e0
| 4007e8: d65f03c0 ret
Before this patch, the ADRP is not recognized, and is assumed to be
steppable, resulting in corruption of the result:
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
| # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events
| # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0xffffffffff7e0
| NOT EQUAL
After this patch, the ADRP is correctly recognized and simulated:
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
| #
| # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events
| # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels
The arm64 uprobes code is broken for big-endian kernels as it doesn't
convert the in-memory instruction encoding (which is always
little-endian) into the kernel's native endianness before analyzing and
simulating instructions. This may result in a few distinct problems:
* The kernel may may erroneously reject probing an instruction which can
safely be probed.
* The kernel may erroneously erroneously permit stepping an
instruction out-of-line when that instruction cannot be stepped
out-of-line safely.
* The kernel may erroneously simulate instruction incorrectly dur to
interpretting the byte-swapped encoding.
The endianness mismatch isn't caught by the compiler or sparse because:
* The arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields are encoded as arrays of u8, so
the compiler and sparse have no idea these contain a little-endian
32-bit value. The core uprobes code populates these with a memcpy()
which similarly does not handle endianness.
* While the uprobe_opcode_t type is an alias for __le32, both
arch_uprobe_analyze_insn() and arch_uprobe_skip_sstep() cast from u8[]
to the similarly-named probe_opcode_t, which is an alias for u32.
Hence there is no endianness conversion warning.
Fix this by changing the arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields to __le32 and
adding the appropriate __le32_to_cpu() conversions prior to consuming
the instruction encoding. The core uprobes copies these fields as opaque
ranges of bytes, and so is unaffected by this change.
At the same time, remove MAX_UINSN_BYTES and consistently use
AARCH64_INSN_SIZE for clarity.
Tested with the following:
| #include <stdio.h>
| #include <stdbool.h>
|
| #define noinline __attribute__((noinline))
|
| static noinline void *adrp_self(void)
| {
| void *addr;
|
| asm volatile(
| " adrp %x0, adrp_self\n"
| " add %x0, %x0, :lo12:adrp_self\n"
| : "=r" (addr));
| }
|
|
| int main(int argc, char *argv)
| {
| void *ptr = adrp_self();
| bool equal = (ptr == adrp_self);
|
| printf("adrp_self => %p\n"
| "adrp_self() => %p\n"
| "%s\n",
| adrp_self, ptr, equal ? "EQUAL" : "NOT EQUAL");
|
| return 0;
| }
.... where the adrp_self() function was compiled to:
| 00000000004007e0 <adrp_self>:
| 4007e0: 90000000 adrp x0, 400000 <__ehdr_start>
| 4007e4: 911f8000 add x0, x0, #0x7e0
| 4007e8: d65f03c0 ret
Before this patch, the ADRP is not recognized, and is assumed to be
steppable, resulting in corruption of the result:
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
| # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events
| # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0xffffffffff7e0
| NOT EQUAL
After this patch, the ADRP is correctly recognized and simulated:
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
| #
| # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events
| # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable
| # ./adrp-self
| adrp_self => 0x4007e0
| adrp_self() => 0x4007e0
| EQUAL
Affected Products
-
CVE record
-
NVD configurations
-
Red Hat packages
No data
-
OpenCVE enrichment
No data
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | unaffected |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linux | Linux | affected |
|
Configuration 1 [-]
|
No data.
No data available yet.
Remediation
Tracking
Advisories
| Source | ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
 Debian DLA |
DLA-4008-1 | linux-6.1 security update |
| Debian DLA |
DLA-4075-1 | linux security update |
 Ubuntu USN |
USN-7276-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7277-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7288-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7288-2 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7289-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7289-2 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7289-3 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7289-4 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7291-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7293-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7294-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7294-2 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7294-3 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7294-4 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7295-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7305-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7308-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7310-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7331-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7383-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7383-2 | Linux kernel (Real-time) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7384-1 | Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7384-2 | Linux kernel (Azure) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7385-1 | Linux kernel (IBM) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7386-1 | Linux kernel (OEM) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7388-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7389-1 | Linux kernel (NVIDIA Tegra) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7390-1 | Linux kernel (Xilinx ZynqMP) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7393-1 | Linux kernel (FIPS) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7401-1 | Linux kernel (AWS) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7403-1 | Linux kernel (HWE) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7413-1 | Linux kernel (IoT) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7451-1 | Linux kernel vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7458-1 | Linux kernel (IBM) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7468-1 | Linux kernel (Azure, N-Series) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7523-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi Real-time) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7524-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7539-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities |
| Ubuntu USN |
USN-7540-1 | Linux kernel (Raspberry Pi) vulnerabilities |
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality Impact None
Integrity Impact None
Availability Impact High
User Interaction None
No CVSS v3.0
No CVSS v2
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
Exploit prediction score: < 1% (0.231% probability within 30 days)
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial
References
History
Nov 3, 2025 11:30 PM
Added references
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Nov 3, 2025 9:30 PM
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Oct 1, 2025 9:15 PM
Scoring metrics updated
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ssvc
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Jul 14, 2025 1:45 PM
Scoring metrics updated
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|---|---|---|
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epss
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epss
|
Mar 4, 2025 6:30 AM
Weaknesses updated. Scoring metrics updated
View changes
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Weaknesses | CWE-704 | |
| Metrics |
threat_severity
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threat_severity
|
Nov 29, 2024 8:00 PM
First appearance in the feed. Weaknesses updated. Affected versions updated. Affected vendors updated
View changes
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
|
| Weaknesses | NVD-CWE-noinfo | |
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.12:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.12:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.12:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* |
|
| Vendors & Products |
Linux
Linux linux Kernel |
Nov 22, 2024 2:00 PM
Added references. Scoring metrics updated
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| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| References |
| |
| Metrics |
threat_severity
|
cvssV3_1
|
Nov 8, 2024 6:00 AM
Description updated. Title updated. Added references
View changes
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels The arm64 uprobes code is broken for big-endian kernels as it doesn't convert the in-memory instruction encoding (which is always little-endian) into the kernel's native endianness before analyzing and simulating instructions. This may result in a few distinct problems: * The kernel may may erroneously reject probing an instruction which can safely be probed. * The kernel may erroneously erroneously permit stepping an instruction out-of-line when that instruction cannot be stepped out-of-line safely. * The kernel may erroneously simulate instruction incorrectly dur to interpretting the byte-swapped encoding. The endianness mismatch isn't caught by the compiler or sparse because: * The arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields are encoded as arrays of u8, so the compiler and sparse have no idea these contain a little-endian 32-bit value. The core uprobes code populates these with a memcpy() which similarly does not handle endianness. * While the uprobe_opcode_t type is an alias for __le32, both arch_uprobe_analyze_insn() and arch_uprobe_skip_sstep() cast from u8[] to the similarly-named probe_opcode_t, which is an alias for u32. Hence there is no endianness conversion warning. Fix this by changing the arch_uprobe::{insn,ixol} fields to __le32 and adding the appropriate __le32_to_cpu() conversions prior to consuming the instruction encoding. The core uprobes copies these fields as opaque ranges of bytes, and so is unaffected by this change. At the same time, remove MAX_UINSN_BYTES and consistently use AARCH64_INSN_SIZE for clarity. Tested with the following: | #include <stdio.h> | #include <stdbool.h> | | #define noinline __attribute__((noinline)) | | static noinline void *adrp_self(void) | { | void *addr; | | asm volatile( | " adrp %x0, adrp_self\n" | " add %x0, %x0, :lo12:adrp_self\n" | : "=r" (addr)); | } | | | int main(int argc, char *argv) | { | void *ptr = adrp_self(); | bool equal = (ptr == adrp_self); | | printf("adrp_self => %p\n" | "adrp_self() => %p\n" | "%s\n", | adrp_self, ptr, equal ? "EQUAL" : "NOT EQUAL"); | | return 0; | } .... where the adrp_self() function was compiled to: | 00000000004007e0 <adrp_self>: | 4007e0: 90000000 adrp x0, 400000 <__ehdr_start> | 4007e4: 911f8000 add x0, x0, #0x7e0 | 4007e8: d65f03c0 ret Before this patch, the ADRP is not recognized, and is assumed to be steppable, resulting in corruption of the result: | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL | # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events | # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0xffffffffff7e0 | NOT EQUAL After this patch, the ADRP is correctly recognized and simulated: | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL | # | # echo 'p /root/adrp-self:0x007e0' > /sys/kernel/tracing/uprobe_events | # echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/events/uprobes/enable | # ./adrp-self | adrp_self => 0x4007e0 | adrp_self() => 0x4007e0 | EQUAL | |
| Title | arm64: probes: Fix uprobes for big-endian kernels | |
| References |
|
|
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Weaknesses
