# CVE-2024-38613: m68k: Fix spinlock race in kernel thread creation

> A race condition in the m68k Linux kernel's kernel thread creation can cause a spinlock recursion warning and potential system instability.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/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:** 19 Jun 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-38613, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-38613, GHSA-hfvw-jf8h-qv56, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-38613

## What is CVE-2024-38613?

CVE-2024-38613 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:

m68k: Fix spinlock race in kernel thread creation

Context switching does take care to retain the correct lock owner across
the switch from 'prev' to 'next' tasks.  This does rely on interrupts
remaining disabled for the entire duration of the switch.

This condition is guaranteed for normal process creation and context
switching between already running processes, because both 'prev' and
'next' already have interrupts disabled in their saved copies of the
status register.

The situation is different for newly created kernel threads.  The status
register is set to PS_S in copy_thread(), which does leave the IPL at 0.
Upon restoring the 'next' thread's status register in switch_to() aka
resume(), interrupts then become enabled prematurely.  resume() then
returns via ret_from_kernel_thread() and schedule_tail() where run queue
lock is released (see finish_task_switch() and finish_lock_switch()).

A timer interrupt calling scheduler_tick() before the lock is released
in finish_task_switch() will find the lock already taken, with the
current task as lock owner.  This causes a spinlock recursion warning as
reported by Guenter Roeck.

As far as I can ascertain, this race has been opened in commit
533e6903bea0 ("m68k: split ret_from_fork(), simplify kernel_thread()")
but I haven't done a detailed study of kernel history so it may well
predate that commit.

Interrupts cannot be disabled in the saved status register copy for
kernel threads (init will complain about interrupts disabled when
finally starting user space).  Disable interrupts temporarily when
switching the tasks' register sets in resume().

Note that a simple oriw 0x700,%sr after restoring sr is not enough here
- this leaves enough of a race for the 'spinlock recursion' warning to
still be observed.

Tested on ARAnyM and qemu (Quadra 800 emulation).

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-38613?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-38613?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-38613 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-38613 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-2024-38613 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-38613 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-38613 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-2024-38613/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38613/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-38613
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-38613
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-38613

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38613/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.