# CVE-2024-27405: usb: gadget: ncm: Avoid dropping datagrams of properly parsed NTBs

> A flaw in the Linux kernel USB NCM gadget driver causes valid datagrams to be dropped when an extra byte is appended, leading to network disruption during tethering.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-27405, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-27405, GHSA-hh96-p296-x7m4, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-27405

## What is CVE-2024-27405?

CVE-2024-27405 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 17 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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

usb: gadget: ncm: Avoid dropping datagrams of properly parsed NTBs

It is observed sometimes when tethering is used over NCM with Windows 11
as host, at some instances, the gadget_giveback has one byte appended at
the end of a proper NTB. When the NTB is parsed, unwrap call looks for
any leftover bytes in SKB provided by u_ether and if there are any pending
bytes, it treats them as a separate NTB and parses it. But in case the
second NTB (as per unwrap call) is faulty/corrupt, all the datagrams that
were parsed properly in the first NTB and saved in rx_list are dropped.

Adding a few custom traces showed the following:
[002] d..1  7828.532866: dwc3_gadget_giveback: ep1out:
req 000000003868811a length 1025/16384 zsI ==> 0
[002] d..1  7828.532867: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb toprocess: 1025
[002] d..1  7828.532867: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb nth: 1751999342
[002] d..1  7828.532868: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb seq: 0xce67
[002] d..1  7828.532868: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb blk_len: 0x400
[002] d..1  7828.532868: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb ndp_len: 0x10
[002] d..1  7828.532869: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: Parsed NTB with 1 frames

In this case, the giveback is of 1025 bytes and block length is 1024.
The rest 1 byte (which is 0x00) won't be parsed resulting in drop of
all datagrams in rx_list.

Same is case with packets of size 2048:
[002] d..1  7828.557948: dwc3_gadget_giveback: ep1out:
req 0000000011dfd96e length 2049/16384 zsI ==> 0
[002] d..1  7828.557949: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb nth: 1751999342
[002] d..1  7828.557950: ncm_unwrap_ntb: K: ncm_unwrap_ntb blk_len: 0x800

Lecroy shows one byte coming in extra confirming that the byte is coming
in from PC:

 Transfer 2959 - Bytes Transferred(1025)  Timestamp((18.524 843 590)
 - Transaction 8391 - Data(1025 bytes) Timestamp(18.524 843 590)
 --- Packet 4063861
       Data(1024 bytes)
       Duration(2.117us) Idle(14.700ns) Timestamp(18.524 843 590)
 --- Packet 4063863
       Data(1 byte)
       Duration(66.160ns) Time(282.000ns) Timestamp(18.524 845 722)

According to Windows driver, no ZLP is needed if wBlockLength is non-zero,
because the non-zero wBlockLength has already told the function side the
size of transfer to be expected. However, there are in-market NCM devices
that rely on ZLP as long as the wBlockLength is multiple of wMaxPacketSize.
To deal with such devices, it pads an extra 0 at end so the transfer is no
longer multiple of wMaxPacketSize.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-27405?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-27405?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-27405 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-27405 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-2024-27405 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-27405 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 17 May 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-27405 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-2024-27405/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-27405/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-27405
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-27405
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-27405

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-27405/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
