CVE-2024-42098: Linux Kernel

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: crypto: ecdh - explicitly zeroize private_key private_key is overwritten with the key parameter passed in by the caller (if present), or alternatively a newly generated private key. However, it is possible that the caller provides a key (or the newly generated key) which is shorter than the previous key. In that scenario, some key material from the previous key would not be overwritten. The easiest solution is to explicitly zeroize the entire private_key array first. Note that this patch slightly changes the behavior of this function: previously, if the ecc_gen_privkey failed, the old private_key would remain. Now, the private_key is always zeroized. This behavior is consistent with the case where params.key is set and ecc_is_key_valid fails.

Affected products

• Linux Linux Kernel: before 5.15.162 (fixed in 5.15.162); from 5.16, before 6.1.97 (fixed in 6.1.97); from 6.2, before 6.6.37 (fixed in 6.6.37); from 6.7, before 6.9.8 (fixed in 6.9.8)

Published 2024-07-29. Last modified 2026-06-17.