CVE-2024-44948
kernel: x86/mtrr: Check if fixed MTRRs exist before saving them
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · September 4, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
x86/mtrr: Check if fixed MTRRs exist before saving them
MTRRs have an obsolete fixed variant for fine grained caching control of the 640K-1MB region that uses separate MSRs. This fixed variant has a separate capability bit in the MTRR capability MSR.
So far all x86 CPUs which support MTRR have this separate bit set, so it went unnoticed that mtrr_save_state() does not check the capability bit before accessing the fixed MTRR MSRs.
Though on a CPU that does not support the fixed MTRR capability this results in a #GP. The #GP itself is harmless because the RDMSR fault is handled gracefully, but results in a WARN_ON().
Add the missing capability check to prevent this.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
No mitigation is specified in collected source.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 5.5CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE-754 · Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions