high CVSS 7.8

CVE-2024-56640·Kernel vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/smc: fix LGR and link use-after-free issue We encountered a LGR/link use-after-free issue, which manifested as the LGR/link refcnt reaching 0 early and entering the clear process, making resource access unsafe. refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 14 PID: 107447 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0x9c/0x140 Workqueue: events smc_lgr_terminate_work [smc] Call trace: refcount_warn_saturate+0x9c/0x140 __smc_lgr_terminate.part.45+0x2a8/0x370 [smc] smc_lgr_terminate_work+0x28/0x30 [smc] process_one_work+0x1b8/0x420 worker_thread+0x158/0x510 kthread+0x114/0x118 or refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 93140 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0xf0/0x140 Workqueue: smc_hs_wq smc_listen_work [smc] Call trace: refcount_warn_saturate+0xf0/0x140 smcr_link_put+0x1cc/0x1d8 [smc] smc_conn_free+0x110/0x1b0 [smc] smc_conn_abort+0x50/0x60 [smc] smc_listen_find_device+0x75c/0x790 [smc] smc_listen_work+0x368/0x8a0 [smc] process_one_work+0x1b8/0x420 worker_thread+0x158/0x510 kthread+0x114/0x118 It is caused by repeated release of LGR/link refcnt. One suspect is that smc_conn_free() is called repeatedly because some smc_conn_free() from server listening path are not protected by sock lock. e.g. Calls under socklock | smc_listen_work ------------------------------------------------------- lock_sock(sk) | smc_conn_abort smc_conn_free | \- smc_conn_free \- smcr_link_put | \- smcr_link_put (duplicated) release_sock(sk) So here add sock lock protection in smc_listen_work() path, making it exclusive with other connection operations.

Severity: high
Software: Kernel
Fixed in: 6.12.5
Published: 2024-12-27

Affected versions

From: 6.7

Until: 6.12.5

Fixed in: 6.12.5

How to fix this CVE

Update your Linux kernel to version 6.12.5 or later to resolve a critical use-after-free vulnerability in the SMC (Shared Memory Communications) subsystem. This bug causes reference counting errors when the listener path improperly releases connection and link resources without proper socket locking, leading to premature resource deallocation and kernel warnings. Systems running kernel versions 6.7 through 6.12.4 should prioritize this update to prevent potential system instability.

sudo dnf update kernel kernel-devel

Defensia detects this vulnerability

How to check if you are affected

Check installed kernel version: uname -r
Verify if SMC (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) is in use: lsmod | grep smc
Search kernel logs for refcount warnings: sudo journalctl -b | grep -i 'refcount\|use-after-free'
Confirm patch status: grep -i 'CONFIG_SMC' /boot/config-$(uname -r) and verify kernel version is 6.12.5 or later

FAQ

What is CVE-2024-56640?

This vulnerability is a use-after-free bug in the Linux kernel's SMC networking driver where the listener connection establishment path fails to acquire socket locks before releasing connection resources, allowing duplicate reference count decrements that cause the kernel to access freed memory.

Is CVE-2024-56640 being actively exploited?

No, this vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog and no public exploits are currently available, though it can cause kernel instability if triggered.

What versions of Kernel are affected by CVE-2024-56640?

Linux kernel versions 6.7 through 6.12.4 are vulnerable; version 6.12.5 and later contain the fix.

How do I check if my server is vulnerable to CVE-2024-56640?

Run `uname -r` to check your kernel version—if it shows 6.7.x through 6.12.4, your system is vulnerable. Additionally, verify SMC is compiled in with `grep CONFIG_SMC /boot/config-$(uname -r)`.

Does Defensia detect CVE-2024-56640?

Yes — Defensia's CVE advisory scanner compares installed package versions against the NVD database. If the Linux kernel is installed on a monitored server, CVE-2024-56640 will appear in your dashboard with remediation steps.

Related Kernel CVEs

CVE-2024-42256CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cifs: Fix server re-repick on subrequest retry When a subrequest is marked for needing retry, netfs will call cifs_prepare_write() which will make cifs repick the server for the op before renegotiating credits; it then calls cifs_issue_write() which invokes smb2_async_writev() - which re-repicks the server. If a different server is then selected, this causes the increment of server->in_flight to happen against one record and the decrement to happen against another, leading to misaccounting. Fix this by just removing the repick code in smb2_async_writev(). As this is only called from netfslib-driven code, cifs_prepare_write() should always have been called first, and so server should never be NULL and the preparatory step is repeated in the event that we do a retry. The problem manifests as a warning looking something like: WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 72896 at fs/smb/client/smb2ops.c:97 smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... RIP: 0010:smb2_add_credits+0x3f0/0x9e0 [cifs] ... smb2_writev_callback+0x334/0x560 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x77a/0x11b0 [cifs] kthread+0x187/0x1d0 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x60 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Which may be triggered by a number of different xfstests running against an Azure server in multichannel mode. generic/249 seems the most repeatable, but generic/215, generic/249 and generic/308 may also show it.

CVE-2024-36031CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: keys: Fix overwrite of key expiration on instantiation The expiry time of a key is unconditionally overwritten during instantiation, defaulting to turn it permanent. This causes a problem for DNS resolution as the expiration set by user-space is overwritten to TIME64_MAX, disabling further DNS updates. Fix this by restoring the condition that key_set_expiry is only called when the pre-parser sets a specific expiry.

CVE-2024-38612CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ipv6: sr: fix invalid unregister error path The error path of seg6_init() is wrong in case CONFIG_IPV6_SEG6_LWTUNNEL is not defined. In that case if seg6_hmac_init() fails, the genl_unregister_family() isn't called. This issue exist since commit 46738b1317e1 ("ipv6: sr: add option to control lwtunnel support"), and commit 5559cea2d5aa ("ipv6: sr: fix possible use-after-free and null-ptr-deref") replaced unregister_pernet_subsys() with genl_unregister_family() in this error path.

CVE-2024-38623CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Use variable length array instead of fixed size Should fix smatch warning: ntfs_set_label() error: __builtin_memcpy() 'uni->name' too small (20 vs 256)

CVE-2021-47548CVSS 9.8In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ethernet: hisilicon: hns: hns_dsaf_misc: fix a possible array overflow in hns_dsaf_ge_srst_by_port() The if statement: if (port >= DSAF_GE_NUM) return; limits the value of port less than DSAF_GE_NUM (i.e., 8). However, if the value of port is 6 or 7, an array overflow could occur: port_rst_off = dsaf_dev->mac_cb[port]->port_rst_off; because the length of dsaf_dev->mac_cb is DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM (i.e., 6). To fix this possible array overflow, we first check port and if it is greater than or equal to DSAF_MAX_PORT_NUM, the function returns.

References

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