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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2024-42304: Linux kernel · ext4: make sure the first directory block is not a hole

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High · fixed in 5.4.0-1135.145~18.04.1 : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 23:28 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
Patch
Available – fixed in 5.4.0-1135.145~18.04.1, 5.4.0-1140.147~18.04.1, 5.4.0-1139.148~18.04.1 +75
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 17 Aug 2024

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq 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 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinuxpkg:deb/ubuntu/linux?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-50.51
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-50.51
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-awspkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-1020.22
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-1020.22
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azurepkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-1020.23
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-1020.23
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gcppkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gcp?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-1019.21
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-1019.21
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gkepkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gke?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-1015.19
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-1015.19
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gkeoppkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gkeop?arch=source&distro=nobleOther threatsAffected
  • <6.8.0-1002.4
Fixed in
  • 6.8.0-1002.4

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: make sure the first directory block is not a hole The syzbot constructs a directory that has no dirblock but is non-inline, i.e. the first directory block is a hole. And no errors are reported when creating files in this directory in the following flow. ext4_mknod ... ext4_add_entry // Read block 0 ext4_read_dirblock(dir, block, DIRENT) bh = ext4_bread(NULL, inode, block, 0) if (!bh && (type == INDEX || type == DIRENT_HTREE)) // The first directory block is a hole // But type == DIRENT, so no error is reported. After that, we get a directory block without '.' and '..' but with a valid dentry. This may cause some code that relies on dot or dotdot (such as make_indexed_dir()) to crash. Therefore when ext4_read_dirblock() finds that the first directory block is a hole report that the filesystem is corrupted and return an error to avoid loading corrupted data from disk causing something bad.

References

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