CVE-2024-46845: tracing/timerlat: Only clear timer if a kthread exists

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2024-46845 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Use After Free vulnerability in linux. EPSS estimates a 0.24% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 14.8% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 27-09-2024
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 05-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing/timerlat: Only clear timer if a kthread exists The timerlat tracer can use user space threads to check for osnoise and timer latency. If the program using this is killed via a SIGTERM, the threads are shutdown one at a time and another tracing instance can start up resetting the threads before they are fully closed. That causes the hrtimer assigned to the kthread to be shutdown and freed twice when the dying thread finally closes the file descriptors, causing a use-after-free bug. Only cancel the hrtimer if the associated thread is still around. Also add the interface_lock around the resetting of the tlat_var->kthread. Note, this is just a quick fix that can be backported to stable. A real fix is to have a better synchronization between the shutdown of old threads and the starting of new ones.

• CWE-416Use After FreeThe product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.