CVE-2024-44968 tick/broadcast: Move per CPU pointer access into the atomic section

What is CVE-2024-44968?

CVE-2024-44968 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Sep 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:

tick/broadcast: Move per CPU pointer access into the atomic section

The recent fix for making the take over of the broadcast timer more reliable retrieves a per CPU pointer in preemptible context.

This went unnoticed as compilers hoist the access into the non-preemptible region where the pointer is actually used. But of course it's valid that the compiler keeps it at the place where the code puts it which rightfully triggers:

BUG: using smp_processor_id() in preemptible [00000000] code: caller is hotplug_cpu__broadcast_tick_pull+0x1c/0xc0

Move it to the actual usage site which is in a non-preemptible region.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-44968?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-44968?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-44968 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-44968 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 BELL-CVE-2024-44968, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-44968, GHSA-285g-gc96-4xjh, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-44968.