CVE-2024-57924: fs: relax assertions on failure to encode file handles

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2024-57924 is a medium (CVSS 5.5) Reachable Assertion vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.28% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 20% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 19-01-2025
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 15-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: relax assertions on failure to encode file handles Encoding file handles is usually performed by a filesystem >encode_fh() method that may fail for various reasons. The legacy users of exportfs_encode_fh(), namely, nfsd and name_to_handle_at(2) syscall are ready to cope with the possibility of failure to encode a file handle. There are a few other users of exportfs_encode_{fh,fid}() that currently have a WARN_ON() assertion when ->encode_fh() fails. Relax those assertions because they are wrong. The second linked bug report states commit 16aac5ad1fa9 ("ovl: support encoding non-decodable file handles") in v6.6 as the regressing commit, but this is not accurate. The aforementioned commit only increases the chances of the assertion and allows triggering the assertion with the reproducer using overlayfs, inotify and drop_caches. Triggering this assertion was always possible with other filesystems and other reasons of ->encode_fh() failures and more particularly, it was also possible with the exact same reproducer using overlayfs that is mounted with options index=on,nfs_export=on also on kernels < v6.6. Therefore, I am not listing the aforementioned commit as a Fixes commit. Backport hint: this patch will have a trivial conflict applying to v6.6.y, and other trivial conflicts applying to stable kernels < v6.6.

• CWE-617Reachable AssertionThe product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary.