# CVE-2024-46788: tracing/osnoise: Use a cpumask to know what threads are kthreads

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

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 18 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-46788, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46788, GHSA-3h89-g9r5-cvx9, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46788

## What is CVE-2024-46788?

CVE-2024-46788 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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:

tracing/osnoise: Use a cpumask to know what threads are kthreads

The start_kthread() and stop_thread() code was not always called with the
interface_lock held. This means that the kthread variable could be
unexpectedly changed causing the kthread_stop() to be called on it when it
should not have been, leading to:

 while true; do
   rtla timerlat top -u -q & PID=$!;
   sleep 5;
   kill -INT $PID;
   sleep 0.001;
   kill -TERM $PID;
   wait $PID;
  done

Causing the following OOPS:

 Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000002: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI
 KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017]
 CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 885 Comm: timerlatu/5 Not tainted 6.11.0-rc4-test-00002-gbc754cc76d1b-dirty #125 a533010b71dab205ad2f507188ce8c82203b0254
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
 RIP: 0010:hrtimer_active+0x58/0x300
 Code: 48 c1 ee 03 41 54 48 01 d1 48 01 d6 55 53 48 83 ec 20 80 39 00 0f 85 30 02 00 00 49 8b 6f 30 4c 8d 75 10 4c 89 f0 48 c1 e8 03 <0f> b6 3c 10 4c 89 f0 83 e0 07 83 c0 03 40 38 f8 7c 09 40 84 ff 0f
 RSP: 0018:ffff88811d97f940 EFLAGS: 00010202
 RAX: 0000000000000002 RBX: ffff88823c6b5b28 RCX: ffffed10478d6b6b
 RDX: dffffc0000000000 RSI: ffffed10478d6b6c RDI: ffff88823c6b5b28
 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffff88823c6b5b58 R09: ffff88823c6b5b60
 R10: ffff88811d97f957 R11: 0000000000000010 R12: 00000000000a801d
 R13: ffff88810d8b35d8 R14: 0000000000000010 R15: ffff88823c6b5b28
 FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88823c680000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 0000561858ad7258 CR3: 000000007729e001 CR4: 0000000000170ef0
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  ? die_addr+0x40/0xa0
  ? exc_general_protection+0x154/0x230
  ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x26/0x30
  ? hrtimer_active+0x58/0x300
  ? __pfx_mutex_lock+0x10/0x10
  ? __pfx_locks_remove_file+0x10/0x10
  hrtimer_cancel+0x15/0x40
  timerlat_fd_release+0x8e/0x1f0
  ? security_file_release+0x43/0x80
  __fput+0x372/0xb10
  task_work_run+0x11e/0x1f0
  ? _raw_spin_lock+0x85/0xe0
  ? __pfx_task_work_run+0x10/0x10
  ? poison_slab_object+0x109/0x170
  ? do_exit+0x7a0/0x24b0
  do_exit+0x7bd/0x24b0
  ? __pfx_migrate_enable+0x10/0x10
  ? __pfx_do_exit+0x10/0x10
  ? __pfx_read_tsc+0x10/0x10
  ? ktime_get+0x64/0x140
  ? _raw_spin_lock_irq+0x86/0xe0
  do_group_exit+0xb0/0x220
  get_signal+0x17ba/0x1b50
  ? vfs_read+0x179/0xa40
  ? timerlat_fd_read+0x30b/0x9d0
  ? __pfx_get_signal+0x10/0x10
  ? __pfx_timerlat_fd_read+0x10/0x10
  arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x8c/0x570
  ? __pfx_arch_do_signal_or_restart+0x10/0x10
  ? vfs_read+0x179/0xa40
  ? ksys_read+0xfe/0x1d0
  ? __pfx_ksys_read+0x10/0x10
  syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0xbc/0x130
  do_syscall_64+0x74/0x110
  ? __pfx___rseq_handle_notify_resume+0x10/0x10
  ? __pfx_ksys_read+0x10/0x10
  ? fpregs_restore_userregs+0xdb/0x1e0
  ? fpregs_restore_userregs+0xdb/0x1e0
  ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x116/0x130
  ? do_syscall_64+0x74/0x110
  ? do_syscall_64+0x74/0x110
  ? do_syscall_64+0x74/0x110
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x71/0x79
 RIP: 0033:0x7ff0070eca9c
 Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at 0x7ff0070eca72.
 RSP: 002b:00007ff006dff8c0 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000
 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000005 RCX: 00007ff0070eca9c
 RDX: 0000000000000400 RSI: 00007ff006dff9a0 RDI: 0000000000000003
 RBP: 00007ff006dffde0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007ff000000ba0
 R10: 00007ff007004b08 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000003
 R13: 00007ff006dff9a0 R14: 0000000000000007 R15: 0000000000000008
  </TASK>
 Modules linked in: snd_hda_intel snd_intel_dspcfg snd_intel_sdw_acpi snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_hda_core
 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

This is because it would mistakenly call kthread_stop() on a user space
thread making it "exit" before it actually exits.

Since kthread
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46788?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46788?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46788 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46788 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-2024-46788 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46788 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 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-2024-46788 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-2024-46788/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46788/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46788
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46788
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46788

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46788/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.