# CVE-2024-36938: bpf, skmsg: Fix NULL pointer dereference in sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's skmsg subsystem can lead to a NULL pointer dereference, causing a system crash.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 30 May 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-42454, AZL-42478, BELL-CVE-2024-36938, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-36938, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-36938

## What is CVE-2024-36938?

CVE-2024-36938 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 30 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:

bpf, skmsg: Fix NULL pointer dereference in sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue

Fix NULL pointer data-races in sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue() which
syzbot reported [1].

[1]
BUG: KCSAN: data-race in sk_psock_drop / sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue

write to 0xffff88814b3278b8 of 8 bytes by task 10724 on cpu 1:
 sk_psock_stop_verdict net/core/skmsg.c:1257 [inline]
 sk_psock_drop+0x13e/0x1f0 net/core/skmsg.c:843
 sk_psock_put include/linux/skmsg.h:459 [inline]
 sock_map_close+0x1a7/0x260 net/core/sock_map.c:1648
 unix_release+0x4b/0x80 net/unix/af_unix.c:1048
 __sock_release net/socket.c:659 [inline]
 sock_close+0x68/0x150 net/socket.c:1421
 __fput+0x2c1/0x660 fs/file_table.c:422
 __fput_sync+0x44/0x60 fs/file_table.c:507
 __do_sys_close fs/open.c:1556 [inline]
 __se_sys_close+0x101/0x1b0 fs/open.c:1541
 __x64_sys_close+0x1f/0x30 fs/open.c:1541
 do_syscall_64+0xd3/0x1d0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6d/0x75

read to 0xffff88814b3278b8 of 8 bytes by task 10713 on cpu 0:
 sk_psock_data_ready include/linux/skmsg.h:464 [inline]
 sk_psock_skb_ingress_enqueue+0x32d/0x390 net/core/skmsg.c:555
 sk_psock_skb_ingress_self+0x185/0x1e0 net/core/skmsg.c:606
 sk_psock_verdict_apply net/core/skmsg.c:1008 [inline]
 sk_psock_verdict_recv+0x3e4/0x4a0 net/core/skmsg.c:1202
 unix_read_skb net/unix/af_unix.c:2546 [inline]
 unix_stream_read_skb+0x9e/0xf0 net/unix/af_unix.c:2682
 sk_psock_verdict_data_ready+0x77/0x220 net/core/skmsg.c:1223
 unix_stream_sendmsg+0x527/0x860 net/unix/af_unix.c:2339
 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:730 [inline]
 __sock_sendmsg+0x140/0x180 net/socket.c:745
 ____sys_sendmsg+0x312/0x410 net/socket.c:2584
 ___sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2638 [inline]
 __sys_sendmsg+0x1e9/0x280 net/socket.c:2667
 __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2676 [inline]
 __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2674 [inline]
 __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x46/0x50 net/socket.c:2674
 do_syscall_64+0xd3/0x1d0
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6d/0x75

value changed: 0xffffffff83d7feb0 -> 0x0000000000000000

Reported by Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer on:
CPU: 0 PID: 10713 Comm: syz-executor.4 Tainted: G        W          6.8.0-syzkaller-08951-gfe46a7dd189e #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/29/2024

Prior to this, commit 4cd12c6065df ("bpf, sockmap: Fix NULL pointer
dereference in sk_psock_verdict_data_ready()") fixed one NULL pointer
similarly due to no protection of saved_data_ready. Here is another
different caller causing the same issue because of the same reason. So
we should protect it with sk_callback_lock read lock because the writer
side in the sk_psock_drop() uses "write_lock_bh(&sk->sk_callback_lock);".

To avoid errors that could happen in future, I move those two pairs of
lock into the sk_psock_data_ready(), which is suggested by John Fastabend.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-36938?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-36938?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-36938 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-36938 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-2024-36938 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-36938 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 30 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-2024-36938 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-2024-36938/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-36938/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-36938
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-36938
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-36938

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-36938/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.