CVE-2024-38596 af_unix: Fix data races in unix_release_sock/unix_stream_sendmsg
A data race in the Linux kernel's AF_UNIX socket implementation can lead to a kernel crash, requiring a patch to fix atomic access issues.
- 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
What is CVE-2024-38596?
CVE-2024-38596 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 19 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: Fix data races in unix_release_sock/unix_stream_sendmsg
A data-race condition has been identified in af_unix. In one data path, the write function unix_release_sock() atomically writes to sk->sk_shutdown using WRITE_ONCE. However, on the reader side, unix_stream_sendmsg() does not read it atomically. Consequently, this issue is causing the following KCSAN splat to occur:
BUG: KCSAN: data-race in unix_release_sock / unix_stream_sendmsg
write (marked) to 0xffff88867256ddbb of 1 bytes by task 7270 on cpu 28: unix_release_sock (net/unix/af_unix.c:640) unix_release (net/unix/af_unix.c:1050) sock_close (net/socket.c:659 net/socket.c:1421) __fput (fs/file_table.c:422) __fput_sync (fs/file_table.c:508) __se_sys_close (fs/open.c:1559 fs/open.c:1541) __x64_sys_close (fs/open.c:1541) x64_sys_call (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:33) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:?) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)
read to 0xffff88867256ddbb of 1 bytes by task 989 on cpu 14: unix_stream_sendmsg (net/unix/af_unix.c:2273) __sock_sendmsg (net/socket.c:730 net/socket.c:745) ____sys_sendmsg (net/socket.c:2584) __sys_sendmmsg (net/socket.c:2638 net/socket.c:2724) __x64_sys_sendmmsg (net/socket.c:2753 net/socket.c:2750 net/socket.c:2750) x64_sys_call (arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:33) do_syscall_64 (arch/x86/entry/common.c:?) entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:130)
value changed: 0x01 -> 0x03
The line numbers are related to commit dd5a440a31fa ("Linux 6.9-rc7").
Commit e1d09c2c2f57 ("af_unix: Fix data races around sk->sk_shutdown.") addressed a comparable issue in the past regarding sk->sk_shutdown. However, it overlooked resolving this particular data path. This patch only offending unix_stream_sendmsg() function, since the other reads seem to be protected by unix_state_lock() as discussed in
Weakness: CWE-362
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-38596?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2024-38596?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2024-38596 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-38596 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-38596, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-38596, GHSA-7fm3-3cqw-x6wj, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-38596.