CVE-2024-50012 cpufreq: Avoid a bad reference count on CPU node

What is CVE-2024-50012?

CVE-2024-50012 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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:

cpufreq: Avoid a bad reference count on CPU node

In the parse_perf_domain function, if the call to of_parse_phandle_with_args returns an error, then the reference to the CPU device node that was acquired at the start of the function would not be properly decremented.

Address this by declaring the variable with the __free(device_node) cleanup attribute.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50012?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-50012?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2024-50012 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50012 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 AZL-51408, BELL-CVE-2024-50012, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50012, GHSA-qq67-99wj-86rm, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-50012, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50012.