CVE-2024-40970: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Avoid hw_desc array overrun in dw-axi-dmac I have a use case where nr_buffers = 3 and in which each descriptor is composed by 3 segments, resulting in the DMA channel descs_allocated to be 9. Since axi_desc_put() handles the hw_desc considering the descs_allocated, this scenario would result in a kernel panic (hw_desc array will be overrun). To fix this, the proposal is to add a new member to the axi_dma_desc structure, where we keep the number of allocated hw_descs (axi_desc_alloc()) and use it in axi_desc_put() to handle the hw_desc array correctly. Additionally I propose to remove the axi_chan_start_first_queued() call after completing the transfer, since it was identified that unbalance can occur (started descriptors can be interrupted and transfer ignored due to DMA channel not being enabled).

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: before 5.15.162 (fixed in 5.15.162); from 5.16, before 6.1.96 (fixed in 6.1.96); from 6.2, before 6.6.36 (fixed in 6.6.36); from 6.7, before 6.9.7 (fixed in 6.9.7)

Published 2024-07-12. Last modified 2026-08-04.