CVE-2024-36479: linux NULL Pointer Dereference

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2024-36479 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) NULL Pointer Dereference vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10.9% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 24-06-2024
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 11-05-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fpga: bridge: add owner module and take its refcount The current implementation of the fpga bridge assumes that the low-level module registers a driver for the parent device and uses its owner pointer to take the module's refcount. This approach is problematic since it can lead to a null pointer dereference while attempting to get the bridge if the parent device does not have a driver. To address this problem, add a module owner pointer to the fpga_bridge struct and use it to take the module's refcount. Modify the function for registering a bridge to take an additional owner module parameter and rename it to avoid conflicts. Use the old function name for a helper macro that automatically sets the module that registers the bridge as the owner. This ensures compatibility with existing low-level control modules and reduces the chances of registering a bridge without setting the owner. Also, update the documentation to keep it consistent with the new interface for registering an fpga bridge. Other changes: opportunistically move put_device() from __fpga_bridge_get() to fpga_bridge_get() and of_fpga_bridge_get() to improve code clarity since the bridge device is taken in these functions.

• CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThe product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.