CVE-2024-53197

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ALSA: usb-audio: Fix potential out-of-bound accesses for Extigy and Mbox devices

A bogus device can provide a bNumConfigurations value that exceeds the initial value used in usb_get_configuration for allocating dev->config.

This can lead to out-of-bounds accesses later, e.g. in usb_destroy_configuration.

Weakness

The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer.

• Be wary that a language’s interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.

• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega [REF-57], and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft [REF-56]. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.

• Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.

• D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.

• Consider adhering to the following rules when allocating and managing an application’s memory:

• Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.

• Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

• Use a CPU and operating system that offers Data Execution Protection (using hardware NX or XD bits) or the equivalent techniques that simulate this feature in software, such as PaX [REF-60] [REF-61]. These techniques ensure that any instruction executed is exclusively at a memory address that is part of the code segment.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-PSEP (Process Segment Execution Prevention) from D3FEND [REF-1336].

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0b4ea4bfe16566b84645ded1403756a2dc4e0f19
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/379d3b9799d9da953391e973b934764f01e03960
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/62dc01c83fa71e10446ee4c31e0e3d5d1291e865
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/920a369a9f014f10ec282fd298d0666129379f1b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9887d859cd60727432a01564e8f91302d361b72b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9b8460a2a7ce478e0b625af7c56d444dc24190f7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b521b53ac6eb04e41c03f46f7fe452e4d8e9bcca
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b8f8b81dabe52b413fe9e062e8a852c48dd0680d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b909df18ce2a998afef81d58bbd1a05dc0788c40
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00001.html
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00002.html
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2024-53197