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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2024-42305: Linux kernel · ext4: check dot and dotdot of dx_root before making dir indexed

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · fixed in 5.4.0-1135.145~18.04.1 : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 23:28 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
5.5Medium
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:N/I:N/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: check dot and dotdot of dx_root before making dir indexed Syzbot reports a issue as follows: ============================================ BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffed11022e24fe PGD 23ffee067 P4D 23ffee067 PUD 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI CPU: 0 PID: 5079 Comm: syz-executor306 Not tainted 6.10.0-rc5-g55027e689933 #0 Call Trace: <TASK> make_indexed_dir+0xdaf/0x13c0 fs/ext4/namei.c:2341 ext4_add_entry+0x222a/0x25d0 fs/ext4/namei.c:2451 ext4_rename fs/ext4/namei.c:3936 [inline] ext4_rename2+0x26e5/0x4370 fs/ext4/namei.c:4214 [...] ============================================ The immediate cause of this problem is that there is only one valid dentry for the block to be split during do_split, so split==0 results in out of bounds accesses to the map triggering the issue. do_split unsigned split dx_make_map count = 1 split = count/2 = 0; continued = hash2 == map[split - 1].hash; ---> map[4294967295] The maximum length of a filename is 255 and the minimum block size is 1024, so it is always guaranteed that the number of entries is greater than or equal to 2 when do_split() is called. But syzbot's crafted image has no dot and dotdot in dir, and the dentry distribution in dirblock is as follows: bus dentry1 hole dentry2 free |xx--|xx-------------|...............|xx-------------|...............| 0 12 (8+248)=256 268 256 524 (8+256)=264 788 236 1024 So when renaming dentry1 increases its name_len length by 1, neither hole nor free is sufficient to hold the new dentry, and make_indexed_dir() is called. In make_indexed_dir() it is assumed that the first two entries of the dirblock must be dot and dotdot, so bus and dentry1 are left in dx_root because they are treated as dot and dotdot, and only dentry2 is moved to the new leaf block. That's why count is equal to 1. Therefore add the ext4_check_dx_root() helper function to add more sanity checks to dot and dotdot before starting the conversion to avoid the above issue.

References

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