CVE-2024-56661 tipc: fix NULL deref in cleanup_bearer()

Medium 5.5 Published 27 Dec 2024 Updated 11 May 2026

A NULL pointer dereference in the Linux kernel's TIPC module allows local attackers to cause a system crash via a general protection fault.

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

What is CVE-2024-56661?

CVE-2024-56661 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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:

tipc: fix NULL deref in cleanup_bearer()

syzbot found [1] that after blamed commit, ub->ubsock->sk was NULL when attempting the atomic_dec() :

atomic_dec(&tipc_net(sock_net(ub->ubsock->sk))->wq_count);

Fix this by caching the tipc_net pointer.

[1]

Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000006: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000030-0x0000000000000037] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5896 Comm: kworker/0:3 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc1-next-20241203-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Workqueue: events cleanup_bearer RIP: 0010:read_pnet include/net/net_namespace.h:387 [inline] RIP: 0010:sock_net include/net/sock.h:655 [inline] RIP: 0010:cleanup_bearer+0x1f7/0x280 net/tipc/udp_media.c:820 Code: 18 48 89 d8 48 c1 e8 03 42 80 3c 28 00 74 08 48 89 df e8 3c f7 99 f6 48 8b 1b 48 83 c3 30 e8 f0 e4 60 00 48 89 d8 48 c1 e8 03 <42> 80 3c 28 00 74 08 48 89 df e8 1a f7 99 f6 49 83 c7 e8 48 8b 1b RSP: 0018:ffffc9000410fb70 EFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: 0000000000000006 RBX: 0000000000000030 RCX: ffff88802fe45a00 RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffffc9000410f900 RBP: ffff88807e1f0908 R08: ffffc9000410f907 R09: 1ffff92000821f20 R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff52000821f21 R12: ffff888031d19980 R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: dffffc0000000000 R15: ffff88807e1f0918 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b8600000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000556ca050b000 CR3: 0000000031c0c000 CR4: 00000000003526f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-56661?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-56661?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-56661 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-56661 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-56661, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-56661, GHSA-4g6f-5r4h-c449, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-56661.