CVE-2024-42101: 
Linux Kernel vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2024-42101 is a vulnerability discovered in the Linux kernel's DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) Nouveau driver. The issue was identified and disclosed on July 30, 2024, affecting the nouveauconnectorget_modes function. The vulnerability impacts Linux kernel versions from 2.6.33 up to versions before 4.19.318, 5.4.280, 5.10.222, and 5.15.163 (NVD).

The vulnerability is a NULL pointer dereference issue in the nouveauconnectorgetmodes() function of the Nouveau driver. Specifically, the return value of drmmodeduplicate() is assigned to the mode variable without proper validation, which could lead to a NULL pointer dereference if drmmode_duplicate() fails. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (Medium) with vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (NVD).

The vulnerability can lead to a system crash due to NULL pointer dereference when the drmmodeduplicate() function fails in the Nouveau driver. This primarily affects system stability and availability, with no direct impact on confidentiality or integrity (NVD).

The vulnerability has been fixed by adding a NULL pointer check before using the return value of drmmodeduplicate(). The fix has been implemented across multiple Linux kernel versions, including updates for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (5.15.0-121.131), 20.04 LTS (5.4.0-195.215), and 18.04 LTS (4.15.0-232.244) (Ubuntu). The patch adds a check to avoid NULL pointer dereference by returning 0 if mode is NULL (Kernel Patch).