# CVE-2024-26909: soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free

> A use-after-free in the Qualcomm PMIC GLINK altmode driver can cause kernel crashes and display initialization failures during boot.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-40106, BELL-CVE-2024-26909, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26909, GHSA-gfgj-cf2r-6ffw, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26909

## What is CVE-2024-26909?

CVE-2024-26909 is a high-severity use after free 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:

soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free

A recent DRM series purporting to simplify support for "transparent
bridges" and handling of probe deferrals ironically exposed a
use-after-free issue on pmic_glink_altmode probe deferral.

This has manifested itself as the display subsystem occasionally failing
to initialise and NULL-pointer dereferences during boot of machines like
the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s.

Specifically, the dp-hpd bridge is currently registered before all
resources have been acquired which means that it can also be
deregistered on probe deferrals.

In the meantime there is a race window where the new aux bridge driver
(or PHY driver previously) may have looked up the dp-hpd bridge and
stored a (non-reference-counted) pointer to the bridge which is about to
be deallocated.

When the display controller is later initialised, this triggers a
use-after-free when attaching the bridges:

	dp -> aux -> dp-hpd (freed)

which may, for example, result in the freed bridge failing to attach:

	[drm:drm_bridge_attach [drm]] *ERROR* failed to attach bridge /soc@0/phy@88eb000 to encoder TMDS-31: -16

or a NULL-pointer dereference:

	Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000
	...
	Call trace:
	  drm_bridge_attach+0x70/0x1a8 [drm]
	  drm_aux_bridge_attach+0x24/0x38 [aux_bridge]
	  drm_bridge_attach+0x80/0x1a8 [drm]
	  dp_bridge_init+0xa8/0x15c [msm]
	  msm_dp_modeset_init+0x28/0xc4 [msm]

The DRM bridge implementation is clearly fragile and implicitly built on
the assumption that bridges may never go away. In this case, the fix is
to move the bridge registration in the pmic_glink_altmode driver to
after all resources have been looked up.

Incidentally, with the new dp-hpd bridge implementation, which registers
child devices, this is also a requirement due to a long-standing issue
in driver core that can otherwise lead to a probe deferral loop (see
commit fbc35b45f9f6 ("Add documentation on meaning of -EPROBE_DEFER")).

[DB: slightly fixed commit message by adding the word 'commit']

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26909?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26909?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26909 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26909 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-2024-26909 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26909 is a high-severity use after free 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-2024-26909 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-2024-26909/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26909/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26909
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26909
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26909

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26909/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.