# CVE-2024-40905: ipv6: fix possible race in __fib6_drop_pcpu_from()

> A race condition in the Linux kernel IPv6 FIB cleanup can cause a null pointer dereference, leading to a system crash.

- **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:** 12 Jul 2024
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-40905, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-40905, GHSA-p46c-p6jp-xfpq, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-40905

## What is CVE-2024-40905?

CVE-2024-40905 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Jul 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:

ipv6: fix possible race in __fib6_drop_pcpu_from()

syzbot found a race in __fib6_drop_pcpu_from() [1]

If compiler reads more than once (*ppcpu_rt),
second read could read NULL, if another cpu clears
the value in rt6_get_pcpu_route().

Add a READ_ONCE() to prevent this race.

Also add rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock() because
we rely on RCU protection while dereferencing pcpu_rt.

[1]

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000012: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000090-0x0000000000000097]
CPU: 0 PID: 7543 Comm: kworker/u8:17 Not tainted 6.10.0-rc1-syzkaller-00013-g2bfcfd584ff5 #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 04/02/2024
Workqueue: netns cleanup_net
 RIP: 0010:__fib6_drop_pcpu_from.part.0+0x10a/0x370 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:984
Code: f8 48 c1 e8 03 80 3c 28 00 0f 85 16 02 00 00 4d 8b 3f 4d 85 ff 74 31 e8 74 a7 fa f7 49 8d bf 90 00 00 00 48 89 f8 48 c1 e8 03 <80> 3c 28 00 0f 85 1e 02 00 00 49 8b 87 90 00 00 00 48 8b 0c 24 48
RSP: 0018:ffffc900040df070 EFLAGS: 00010206
RAX: 0000000000000012 RBX: 0000000000000001 RCX: ffffffff89932e16
RDX: ffff888049dd1e00 RSI: ffffffff89932d7c RDI: 0000000000000091
RBP: dffffc0000000000 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 0000000000000007
R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000006 R12: ffff88807fa080b8
R13: fffffbfff1a9a07d R14: ffffed100ff41022 R15: 0000000000000001
FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9200000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000001b32c26000 CR3: 000000005d56e000 CR4: 00000000003526f0
DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
  __fib6_drop_pcpu_from net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:966 [inline]
  fib6_drop_pcpu_from net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:1027 [inline]
  fib6_purge_rt+0x7f2/0x9f0 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:1038
  fib6_del_route net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:1998 [inline]
  fib6_del+0xa70/0x17b0 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2043
  fib6_clean_node+0x426/0x5b0 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2205
  fib6_walk_continue+0x44f/0x8d0 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2127
  fib6_walk+0x182/0x370 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2175
  fib6_clean_tree+0xd7/0x120 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2255
  __fib6_clean_all+0x100/0x2d0 net/ipv6/ip6_fib.c:2271
  rt6_sync_down_dev net/ipv6/route.c:4906 [inline]
  rt6_disable_ip+0x7ed/0xa00 net/ipv6/route.c:4911
  addrconf_ifdown.isra.0+0x117/0x1b40 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3855
  addrconf_notify+0x223/0x19e0 net/ipv6/addrconf.c:3778
  notifier_call_chain+0xb9/0x410 kernel/notifier.c:93
  call_netdevice_notifiers_info+0xbe/0x140 net/core/dev.c:1992
  call_netdevice_notifiers_extack net/core/dev.c:2030 [inline]
  call_netdevice_notifiers net/core/dev.c:2044 [inline]
  dev_close_many+0x333/0x6a0 net/core/dev.c:1585
  unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x46d/0x19f0 net/core/dev.c:11193
  unregister_netdevice_many net/core/dev.c:11276 [inline]
  default_device_exit_batch+0x85b/0xae0 net/core/dev.c:11759
  ops_exit_list+0x128/0x180 net/core/net_namespace.c:178
  cleanup_net+0x5b7/0xbf0 net/core/net_namespace.c:640
  process_one_work+0x9fb/0x1b60 kernel/workqueue.c:3231
  process_scheduled_works kernel/workqueue.c:3312 [inline]
  worker_thread+0x6c8/0xf70 kernel/workqueue.c:3393
  kthread+0x2c1/0x3a0 kernel/kthread.c:389
  ret_from_fork+0x45/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147
  ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-40905?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-40905?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-40905 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-40905 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-2024-40905 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-40905 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 12 Jul 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-2024-40905 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-2024-40905/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-40905/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-40905
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-40905
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-40905

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-40905/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.