# CVE-2024-46848: perf/x86/intel: Limit the period on Haswell

> A flaw in the Linux kernel's Intel Haswell performance monitoring driver can cause an interrupt loop, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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:** 27 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-50004, BELL-CVE-2024-46848, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46848, GHSA-f8x4-897j-jj7g, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-46848, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-46848, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46848

## What is CVE-2024-46848?

CVE-2024-46848 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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:

perf/x86/intel: Limit the period on Haswell

Running the ltp test cve-2015-3290 concurrently reports the following
warnings.

perfevents: irq loop stuck!
  WARNING: CPU: 31 PID: 32438 at arch/x86/events/intel/core.c:3174
  intel_pmu_handle_irq+0x285/0x370
  Call Trace:
   <NMI>
   ? __warn+0xa4/0x220
   ? intel_pmu_handle_irq+0x285/0x370
   ? __report_bug+0x123/0x130
   ? intel_pmu_handle_irq+0x285/0x370
   ? __report_bug+0x123/0x130
   ? intel_pmu_handle_irq+0x285/0x370
   ? report_bug+0x3e/0xa0
   ? handle_bug+0x3c/0x70
   ? exc_invalid_op+0x18/0x50
   ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
   ? irq_work_claim+0x1e/0x40
   ? intel_pmu_handle_irq+0x285/0x370
   perf_event_nmi_handler+0x3d/0x60
   nmi_handle+0x104/0x330

Thanks to Thomas Gleixner's analysis, the issue is caused by the low
initial period (1) of the frequency estimation algorithm, which triggers
the defects of the HW, specifically erratum HSW11 and HSW143. (For the
details, please refer https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/87plq9l5d2.ffs@tglx/)

The HSW11 requires a period larger than 100 for the INST_RETIRED.ALL
event, but the initial period in the freq mode is 1. The erratum is the
same as the BDM11, which has been supported in the kernel. A minimum
period of 128 is enforced as well on HSW.

HSW143 is regarding that the fixed counter 1 may overcount 32 with the
Hyper-Threading is enabled. However, based on the test, the hardware
has more issues than it tells. Besides the fixed counter 1, the message
'interrupt took too long' can be observed on any counter which was armed
with a period < 32 and two events expired in the same NMI. A minimum
period of 32 is enforced for the rest of the events.
The recommended workaround code of the HSW143 is not implemented.
Because it only addresses the issue for the fixed counter. It brings
extra overhead through extra MSR writing. No related overcounting issue
has been reported so far.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46848?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46848?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46848 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46848 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-2024-46848 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46848 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 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-2024-46848 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-2024-46848/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46848/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46848
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46848
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46848

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46848/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.