# CVE-2024-50138: bpf: Use raw_spinlock_t in ringbuf

> A locking bug in the Linux kernel BPF ringbuf can cause a sleep-in-atomic warning and potential system instability on real-time kernels.

- **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:** 5 Nov 2024
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-52423, AZL-52447, BELL-CVE-2024-50138, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50138, GHSA-jq3v-ccgp-cvrg, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-50138, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2024-50138, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50138

## What is CVE-2024-50138?

CVE-2024-50138 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 5 Nov 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:

bpf: Use raw_spinlock_t in ringbuf

The function __bpf_ringbuf_reserve is invoked from a tracepoint, which
disables preemption. Using spinlock_t in this context can lead to a
"sleep in atomic" warning in the RT variant. This issue is illustrated
in the example below:

BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/spinlock_rt.c:48
in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 556208, name: test_progs
preempt_count: 1, expected: 0
RCU nest depth: 1, expected: 1
INFO: lockdep is turned off.
Preemption disabled at:
[<ffffd33a5c88ea44>] migrate_enable+0xc0/0x39c
CPU: 7 PID: 556208 Comm: test_progs Tainted: G
Hardware name: Qualcomm SA8775P Ride (DT)
Call trace:
 dump_backtrace+0xac/0x130
 show_stack+0x1c/0x30
 dump_stack_lvl+0xac/0xe8
 dump_stack+0x18/0x30
 __might_resched+0x3bc/0x4fc
 rt_spin_lock+0x8c/0x1a4
 __bpf_ringbuf_reserve+0xc4/0x254
 bpf_ringbuf_reserve_dynptr+0x5c/0xdc
 bpf_prog_ac3d15160d62622a_test_read_write+0x104/0x238
 trace_call_bpf+0x238/0x774
 perf_call_bpf_enter.isra.0+0x104/0x194
 perf_syscall_enter+0x2f8/0x510
 trace_sys_enter+0x39c/0x564
 syscall_trace_enter+0x220/0x3c0
 do_el0_svc+0x138/0x1dc
 el0_svc+0x54/0x130
 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x134/0x150
 el0t_64_sync+0x17c/0x180

Switch the spinlock to raw_spinlock_t to avoid this error.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50138?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-50138?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-50138 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50138 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-2024-50138 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-50138 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 5 Nov 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-2024-50138 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-2024-50138/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50138/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-50138
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-50138
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-50138

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50138/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.