CVE-2024-36930 - NULL Pointer Dereference

Severity

55%

Complexity

18%

Confidentiality

60%

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: spi: fix null pointer dereference within spi_sync If spi_sync() is called with the non-empty queue and the same spi_message is then reused, the complete callback for the message remains set while the context is cleared, leading to a null pointer dereference when the callback is invoked from spi_finalize_current_message(). With function inlining disabled, the call stack might look like this: _raw_spin_lock_irqsave from complete_with_flags+0x18/0x58 complete_with_flags from spi_complete+0x8/0xc spi_complete from spi_finalize_current_message+0xec/0x184 spi_finalize_current_message from spi_transfer_one_message+0x2a8/0x474 spi_transfer_one_message from __spi_pump_transfer_message+0x104/0x230 __spi_pump_transfer_message from __spi_transfer_message_noqueue+0x30/0xc4 __spi_transfer_message_noqueue from __spi_sync+0x204/0x248 __spi_sync from spi_sync+0x24/0x3c spi_sync from mcp251xfd_regmap_crc_read+0x124/0x28c [mcp251xfd] mcp251xfd_regmap_crc_read [mcp251xfd] from _regmap_raw_read+0xf8/0x154 _regmap_raw_read from _regmap_bus_read+0x44/0x70 _regmap_bus_read from _regmap_read+0x60/0xd8 _regmap_read from regmap_read+0x3c/0x5c regmap_read from mcp251xfd_alloc_can_err_skb+0x1c/0x54 [mcp251xfd] mcp251xfd_alloc_can_err_skb [mcp251xfd] from mcp251xfd_irq+0x194/0xe70 [mcp251xfd] mcp251xfd_irq [mcp251xfd] from irq_thread_fn+0x1c/0x78 irq_thread_fn from irq_thread+0x118/0x1f4 irq_thread from kthread+0xd8/0xf4 kthread from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 Fix this by also setting message->complete to NULL when the transfer is complete.

CVSS 3.1 Base Score 5.5. CVSS Attack Vector: local. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Demo Examples

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

While there are no complete fixes aside from conscientious programming, the following steps will go a long way to ensure that NULL pointer dereferences do not occur.


               
}
/* make use of pointer1 *//* ... */

If you are working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the if statement; and unlock when it has finished.

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

This example takes an IP address from a user, verifies that it is well formed and then looks up the hostname and copies it into a buffer.


               
}
strcpy(hostname, hp->h_name);/*routine that ensures user_supplied_addr is in the right format for conversion */

If an attacker provides an address that appears to be well-formed, but the address does not resolve to a hostname, then the call to gethostbyaddr() will return NULL. Since the code does not check the return value from gethostbyaddr (CWE-252), a NULL pointer dereference would then occur in the call to strcpy().

Note that this example is also vulnerable to a buffer overflow (see CWE-119).

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

In the following code, the programmer assumes that the system always has a property named "cmd" defined. If an attacker can control the program's environment so that "cmd" is not defined, the program throws a NULL pointer exception when it attempts to call the trim() method.


               
cmd = cmd.trim();

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

This application has registered to handle a URL when sent an intent:


               
}......
}
}
int length = URL.length();
...

The application assumes the URL will always be included in the intent. When the URL is not present, the call to getStringExtra() will return null, thus causing a null pointer exception when length() is called.

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