# CVE-2024-46693: soc: qcom: pmic_glink: Fix race during initialization

> A race condition in the Qualcomm PMIC GLINK driver causes a NULL pointer dereference, leading to a kernel crash during initialization.

- **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:** 13 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-49260, BELL-CVE-2024-46693, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46693, GHSA-5qvx-cmvh-v55m, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46693

## What is CVE-2024-46693?

CVE-2024-46693 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 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:

soc: qcom: pmic_glink: Fix race during initialization

As pointed out by Stephen Boyd it is possible that during initialization
of the pmic_glink child drivers, the protection-domain notifiers fires,
and the associated work is scheduled, before the client registration
returns and as a result the local "client" pointer has been initialized.

The outcome of this is a NULL pointer dereference as the "client"
pointer is blindly dereferenced.

Timeline provided by Stephen:
 CPU0                               CPU1
 ----                               ----
 ucsi->client = NULL;
 devm_pmic_glink_register_client()
  client->pdr_notify(client->priv, pg->client_state)
   pmic_glink_ucsi_pdr_notify()
    schedule_work(&ucsi->register_work)
    <schedule away>
                                    pmic_glink_ucsi_register()
                                     ucsi_register()
                                      pmic_glink_ucsi_read_version()
                                       pmic_glink_ucsi_read()
                                        pmic_glink_ucsi_read()
                                         pmic_glink_send(ucsi->client)
                                         <client is NULL BAD>
 ucsi->client = client // Too late!

This code is identical across the altmode, battery manager and usci
child drivers.

Resolve this by splitting the allocation of the "client" object and the
registration thereof into two operations.

This only happens if the protection domain registry is populated at the
time of registration, which by the introduction of commit '1ebcde047c54
("soc: qcom: add pd-mapper implementation")' became much more likely.

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46693?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46693?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46693 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46693 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-2024-46693 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46693 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 13 Sep 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-2024-46693 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-2024-46693/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46693/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46693
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46693
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46693

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46693/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.