# CVE-2024-26974: crypto: qat - resolve race condition during AER recovery

> A race condition in the Intel QAT crypto driver causes a use-after-free during error recovery, potentially leading to system crashes or code execution.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 1 May 2024
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-26974, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26974, GHSA-767c-45p6-hv5q, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26974

## What is CVE-2024-26974?

CVE-2024-26974 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 May 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:

crypto: qat - resolve race condition during AER recovery

During the PCI AER system's error recovery process, the kernel driver
may encounter a race condition with freeing the reset_data structure's
memory. If the device restart will take more than 10 seconds the function
scheduling that restart will exit due to a timeout, and the reset_data
structure will be freed. However, this data structure is used for
completion notification after the restart is completed, which leads
to a UAF bug.

This results in a KFENCE bug notice.

  BUG: KFENCE: use-after-free read in adf_device_reset_worker+0x38/0xa0 [intel_qat]
  Use-after-free read at 0x00000000bc56fddf (in kfence-#142):
  adf_device_reset_worker+0x38/0xa0 [intel_qat]
  process_one_work+0x173/0x340

To resolve this race condition, the memory associated to the container
of the work_struct is freed on the worker if the timeout expired,
otherwise on the function that schedules the worker.
The timeout detection can be done by checking if the caller is
still waiting for completion or not by using completion_done() function.

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free), CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26974?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26974?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26974 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26974 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-26974 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26974 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 1 May 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-2024-26974 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2024-26974/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26974/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26974
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26974
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26974

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26974/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.