CVE-2024-36972 af_unix: Update unix_sk(sk)->oob_skb under sk_receive_queue lock.

What is CVE-2024-36972?

CVE-2024-36972 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 10 Jun 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:

af_unix: Update unix_sk(sk)->oob_skb under sk_receive_queue lock.

Billy Jheng Bing-Jhong reported a race between __unix_gc() and queue_oob().

__unix_gc() tries to garbage-collect close()d inflight sockets, and then if the socket has MSG_OOB in unix_sk(sk)->oob_skb, GC will drop the reference and set NULL to it locklessly.

However, the peer socket still can send MSG_OOB message and queue_oob() can update unix_sk(sk)->oob_skb concurrently, leading NULL pointer dereference. [0]

To fix the issue, let's update unix_sk(sk)->oob_skb under the sk_receive_queue's lock and take it everywhere we touch oob_skb.

Note that we defer kfree_skb() in manage_oob() to silence lockdep false-positive (See [1]).

[0]: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page PGD 8000000009f5e067 P4D 8000000009f5e067 PUD 9f5d067 PMD 0 Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI CPU: 3 PID: 50 Comm: kworker/3:1 Not tainted 6.9.0-rc5-00191-gd091e579b864 #110 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 Workqueue: events delayed_fput RIP: 0010:skb_dequeue (./include/linux/skbuff.h:2386 ./include/linux/skbuff.h:2402 net/core/skbuff.c:3847) Code: 39 e3 74 3e 8b 43 10 48 89 ef 83 e8 01 89 43 10 49 8b 44 24 08 49 c7 44 24 08 00 00 00 00 49 8b 14 24 49 c7 04 24 00 00 00 00 <48> 89 42 08 48 89 10 e8 e7 c5 42 00 4c 89 e0 5b 5d 41 5c c3 cc cc RSP: 0018:ffffc900001bfd48 EFLAGS: 00000002 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff8880088f5ae8 RCX: 00000000361289f9 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000206 RDI: ffff8880088f5b00 RBP: ffff8880088f5b00 R08: 0000000000080000 R09: 0000000000000001 R10: 0000000000000003 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8880056b6a00 R13: ffff8880088f5280 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: ffff8880088f5a80 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88807dd80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000008 CR3: 0000000006314000 CR4: 00000000007506f0 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> unix_release_sock (net/unix/af_unix.c:654) unix_release (net/unix/af_unix.c:1050) __sock_release (net/socket.c:660) sock_close (net/socket.c:1423) __fput (fs/file_table.c:423) delayed_fput (fs/file_table.c:444 (discriminator 3)) process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3259) worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3329 kernel/workqueue.c:3416) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:388) ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:153) ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:257) </TASK> Modules linked in: CR2: 0000000000000008

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-36972?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-36972?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-36972 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-36972 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as A-342490466, ASB-A-342490466, AZL-48759, AZL-48813, BELL-CVE-2024-36972, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-36972 and 2 more.