CVE-2024-31081VulnerabilityPublished 4 Apr 2024Updated 20 Nov 2025

CVE-2024-31081: Buffer Over-read

Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.3 High.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.3High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 43% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: Low
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 4 Apr 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

2) Restrict local access to trusted users only, minimizing the risk of exploitation by unprivileged users. 3) Employ system-level protections such as Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and memory protection mechanisms to reduce the likelihood of successful exploitation. 4) Monitor system logs and X.org server crash reports for signs of segmentation faults or abnormal behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. 5) Consider isolating critical graphical servers or using containerization to limit the impact of potential crashes. 6) Educate users about the risks of running untrusted clients or applications that interact with the X server, especially those that may have differing endianness. 7) Implement strict access controls and auditing on multi-user systems to detect and prevent unauthorized local access.

Description

A heap-based buffer over-read vulnerability was found in the X.org server's ProcXIPassiveGrabDevice() function. This issue occurs when byte-swapped length values are used in replies, potentially leading to memory leakage and segmentation faults, particularly when triggered by a client with a different endianness. This vulnerability could be exploited by an attacker to cause the X server to read heap memory values and then transmit them back to the client until encountering an unmapped page, resulting in a crash. Despite the attacker's inability to control the specific memory copied into the replies, the small length values typically stored in a 32-bit integer can result in significant attempted out-of-bounds reads.

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2024-31081 is twofold: information disclosure and denial-of-service. The buffer over-read allows an attacker to read arbitrary heap memory from the X.org server process, potentially exposing sensitive data such as cryptographic keys, passwords, or other confidential information residing in memory. Additionally, the vulnerability causes segmentation faults leading to server crashes, resulting in denial-of-service conditions that disrupt graphical sessions. Organizations running vulnerable X.org servers, especially in multi-user environments or where untrusted local users have access, face risks of unauthorized data exposure and service interruptions. This can affect productivity, system stability, and confidentiality of sensitive information. The requirement for local access limits remote exploitation but does not eliminate risk in environments where multiple users share systems or where attackers have gained limited access.

References

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