VulnerabilityPublished 7 Nov 2024Updated 4 Nov 2025

CVE-2024-50163: Linux kernel · bpf: Make sure internal and UAPI bpf_redirect flags don't overlap

Source GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 23:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within 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 7 Nov 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 Oct 2026.

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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity 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.

ghsa-f6cq-3vq2-5393

What to do

AI-suggested

A fix has been implemented that separates the flag definitions and ensures the bpf_redirect_info structure is not shared between SKB and XDP paths, preventing the crash. Users should apply the official Linux kernel patch that addresses this issue. Since this is a kernel-level fix, upgrading to a patched kernel version is the recommended mitigation.

Description

CVE-2024-50163 is a medium severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem where overlapping flag values in the bpf_redirect_info structure used by SKB and XDP redirect paths could cause a kernel crash. The issue arises because the same numeric flag values are used in both paths, leading to confusion and a crash when certain redirect functions are used sequentially. The vulnerability has been addressed by separating the flag definitions to avoid overlap and ensuring the bpf_redirect_info structure is not shared between the two paths.

Impact

The vulnerability can cause a denial of service by crashing the Linux kernel when the conflicting flag values are used in the bpf_redirect_info structure during certain BPF redirect operations. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity, only availability due to the kernel crash.

Summary

This vulnerability involves the Linux kernel's BPF subsystem where the bpf_redirect_info structure is shared between SKB and XDP redirect paths. Both paths used identical numeric flag values (specifically BPF_F_BROADCAST and BPF_F_NEXTHOP) in the ri->flags field, causing confusion and a crash if skb bpf_redirect_neigh() is called with a non-NULL params argument followed by an XDP redirect using the same structure. The fix involves allocating stack-based bpf_redirect_info separately for each path and redefining internal flags to avoid overlap, along with a compile-time check to prevent reintroduction of the overlap.

References

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