# CVE-2024-26837: net: bridge: switchdev: Skip MDB replays of deferred events on offload

> A race condition in the Linux kernel bridge allows orphaned multicast group memberships to persist in hardware, potentially leading to incorrect network state.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Apr 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-59442, BELL-CVE-2024-26837, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26837, GHSA-8ppx-vmhm-cxj7, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26837

## What is CVE-2024-26837?

CVE-2024-26837 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

net: bridge: switchdev: Skip MDB replays of deferred events on offload

Before this change, generation of the list of MDB events to replay
would race against the creation of new group memberships, either from
the IGMP/MLD snooping logic or from user configuration.

While new memberships are immediately visible to walkers of
br->mdb_list, the notification of their existence to switchdev event
subscribers is deferred until a later point in time. So if a replay
list was generated during a time that overlapped with such a window,
it would also contain a replay of the not-yet-delivered event.

The driver would thus receive two copies of what the bridge internally
considered to be one single event. On destruction of the bridge, only
a single membership deletion event was therefore sent. As a
consequence of this, drivers which reference count memberships (at
least DSA), would be left with orphan groups in their hardware
database when the bridge was destroyed.

This is only an issue when replaying additions. While deletion events
may still be pending on the deferred queue, they will already have
been removed from br->mdb_list, so no duplicates can be generated in
that scenario.

To a user this meant that old group memberships, from a bridge in
which a port was previously attached, could be reanimated (in
hardware) when the port joined a new bridge, without the new bridge's
knowledge.

For example, on an mv88e6xxx system, create a snooping bridge and
immediately add a port to it:

    root@infix-06-0b-00:~$ ip link add dev br0 up type bridge mcast_snooping 1 && \
    > ip link set dev x3 up master br0

And then destroy the bridge:

    root@infix-06-0b-00:~$ ip link del dev br0
    root@infix-06-0b-00:~$ mvls atu
    ADDRESS             FID  STATE      Q  F  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a
    DEV:0 Marvell 88E6393X
    33:33:00:00:00:6a     1  static     -  -  0  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
    33:33:ff:87:e4:3f     1  static     -  -  0  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
    ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff     1  static     -  -  0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a
    root@infix-06-0b-00:~$

The two IPv6 groups remain in the hardware database because the
port (x3) is notified of the host's membership twice: once via the
original event and once via a replay. Since only a single delete
notification is sent, the count remains at 1 when the bridge is
destroyed.

Then add the same port (or another port belonging to the same hardware
domain) to a new bridge, this time with snooping disabled:

    root@infix-06-0b-00:~$ ip link add dev br1 up type bridge mcast_snooping 0 && \
    > ip link set dev x3 up master br1

All multicast, including the two IPv6 groups from br0, should now be
flooded, according to the policy of br1. But instead the old
memberships are still active in the hardware database, causing the
switch to only forward traffic to those groups towards the CPU (port
0).

Eliminate the race in two steps:

1. Grab the write-side lock of the MDB while generating the replay
   list.

This prevents new memberships from showing up while we are generating
the replay list. But it leaves the scenario in which a deferred event
was already generated, but not delivered, before we grabbed the
lock. Therefore:

2. Make sure that no deferred version of a replay event is already
   enqueued to the switchdev deferred queue, before adding it to the
   replay list, when replaying additions.

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26837?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26837?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26837 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26837 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-26837 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26837 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Apr 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26837 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26837/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26837/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26837
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26837
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26837

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26837/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.