Public vulnerability disclosure

CVE-2024-26923

af_unix: Fix garbage collector racing against connect()

published

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: af_unix: Fix garbage collector racing against connect() Garbage collector does not take into account the risk of embryo getting enqueued during the garbage collection. If such embryo has a peer that carries SCM_RIGHTS, two consecutive passes of scan_children() may see a different set of children. Leading to an incorrectly elevated inflight count, and then a dangling pointer within the gc_inflight_list. sockets are AF_UNIX/SOCK_STREAM S is an unconnected socket L is a listening in-flight socket bound to addr, not in fdtable V's fd will be passed via sendmsg(), gets inflight count bumped connect(S, addr) sendmsg(S, [V]); close(V) __unix_gc() ---------------- ------------------------- ----------- NS = unix_create1() skb1 = sock_wmalloc(NS) L = unix_find_other(addr) unix_state_lock(L) unix_peer(S) = NS // V count=1 inflight=0 NS = unix_peer(S) skb2 = sock_alloc() skb_queue_tail(NS, skb2[V]) // V became in-flight // V count=2 inflight=1 close(V) // V count=1 inflight=1 // GC candidate condition met for u in gc_inflight_list: if (total_refs == inflight_refs) add u to gc_candidates // gc_candidates={L, V} for u in gc_candidates: scan_children(u, dec_inflight) // embryo (skb1) was not // reachable from L yet, so V's // inflight remains unchanged __skb_queue_tail(L, skb1) unix_state_unlock(L) for u in gc_candidates: if (u.inflight) scan_children(u, inc_inflight_move_tail) // V count=1 inflight=2 (!) If there is a GC-candidate listening socket, lock/unlock its state. This makes GC wait until the end of any ongoing connect() to that socket. After flipping the lock, a possibly SCM-laden embryo is already enqueued. And if there is another embryo coming, it can not possibly carry SCM_RIGHTS. At this point, unix_inflight() can not happen because unix_gc_lock is already taken. Inflight graph remains unaffected.

Technical severity7.8 highCVSS 3.1 · CNA: Linux
Published2024-04-24Source updated 2026-11-03
Collected2026-11-032 attributed sources

Fixes and workarounds

No remediation reported in collected sources.

Missing remediation information is not evidence that no patch exists.

Affected products and versions

Affected products, source version ranges and reporting authorities
ProductVersionsAuthority
Linux
Linux
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < a36ae0ec2353015f0f6762e59f4c2dbc0c906423 (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < 343c5372d5e17b306db5f8f3c895539b06e3177f (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < 2e2a03787f4f0abc0072350654ab0ef3324d9db3 (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < e76c2678228f6aec74b305ae30c9374cc2f28a51 (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < b75722be422c276b699200de90527d01c602ea7c (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < 507cc232ffe53a352847893f8177d276c3b532a9 (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < dbdf7bec5c920200077d693193f989cb1513f009 (affected, git)
≥ 1fd05ba5a2f2aa8e7b9b52ef55df850e2e7d54c9; < 47d8ac011fe1c9251070e1bd64cb10b48193ec51 (affected, git)
Other versions: unaffected
CNA: Linux
Linux
Linux
2.6.23 (affected)
≥ 0; < 2.6.23 (unaffected, semver)
≥ 4.19.314; ≤ 4.19.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.4.275; ≤ 5.4.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.10.216; ≤ 5.10.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 5.15.156; ≤ 5.15.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.1.87; ≤ 6.1.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.6.28; ≤ 6.6.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.8.7; ≤ 6.8.* (unaffected, semver)
≥ 6.9; ≤ * (unaffected, original_commit_for_fix)
Other versions: affected
CNA: Linux
RUGGEDCOM RST2428P
Siemens
≥ 0; < V3.1 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SCALANCE XC-300/XR-300/XC-400/XR-500WG/XR-500 family
Siemens
≥ 0; < * (unaffected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SCALANCE XCM-/XRM-/XCH-/XRH-300 family
Siemens
≥ 0; < V3.1 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
Siemens
≥ V3.1.0; < V3.1.5 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SIMATIC S7-1500 CPU 1518F-4 PN/DP MFP
Siemens
≥ V3.1.0; < V3.1.5 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SIMATIC S7-1500 TM MFP - GNU/Linux subsystem
Siemens
≥ 0; < V1.1.1 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP
SIPLUS S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP MFP
Siemens
≥ V3.1.0; < V3.1.5 (affected, custom)
Other versions: unknown
ADP: siemens-SADP

Version ranges are source assertions. Check the vendor advisory and your installed configuration before determining exposure.

CVSS assessments

CVSS scores, vectors and reporting authorities
Version / scoreVectorAuthority
3.1 / 7.8
high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCNA: Linux

Exploit evidence

No exploit evidence in collected sources. This is not proof of no exploitation.

References

For agents and automation

Read public disclosures for free as Markdown or JSON. Compatible browsers also expose native WebMCP tools to search disclosures, read this page, and discover API access.

Use the ontology-linked Cyber API with x402 pay per request, or a Y2 Pro or Elite API key with the intel:cyber scope.

Endpoints and access details

https://api.y2.dev/api/v2/cyber/cves
https://api.y2.dev/api/v2/cyber/cves/{cveId}

A workspace owner or admin can create a Pro or Elite API key. Send Authorization: Bearer <Y2_API_KEY> from your trusted agent runtime.

For x402, omit Authorization and read the HTTP 402 payment challenge before signing a retry. Public browser tools do not make payments.

Agent access JSON · OpenAPI · CVE API guide