CVE-2024-56612
kernel: mm/gup: handle NULL pages in unpin_user_pages()
Severity
ModerateRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · December 27, 2024
Updated · November 21, 2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/gup: handle NULL pages in unpin_user_pages()
The recent addition of "pofs" (pages or folios) handling to gup has a flaw: it assumes that unpin_user_pages() handles NULL pages in the pages** array. That's not the case, as I discovered when I ran on a new configuration on my test machine.
Fix this by skipping NULL pages in unpin_user_pages(), just like unpin_folios() already does.
Details: when booting on x86 with "numa=fake=2 movablecore=4G" on Linux 6.12, and running this:
tools/testing/selftests/mm/gup_longterm
...I get the following crash:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 RIP: 0010:sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x3a/0x2d0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? __die_body+0x66/0xb0 ? page_fault_oops+0x30c/0x3b0 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x6c3/0x720 ? irqentry_enter+0x34/0x60 ? exc_page_fault+0x68/0x100 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? sanity_check_pinned_pages+0x3a/0x2d0 unpin_user_pages+0x24/0xe0 check_and_migrate_movable_pages_or_folios+0x455/0x4b0 __gup_longterm_locked+0x3bf/0x820 ? mmap_read_lock_killable+0x12/0x50 ? __pfx_mmap_read_lock_killable+0x10/0x10 pin_user_pages+0x66/0xa0 gup_test_ioctl+0x358/0xb20 __se_sys_ioctl+0x6b/0xc0 do_syscall_64+0x7b/0x150 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
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-476 · NULL Pointer Dereference