CVE-2024-26909

CVE-2024-26909 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel with a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5. It is not currently listed as actively exploited by CISA, and its EPSS exploit-prediction score is low. The underlying weakness is classified as CWE-416.

Key facts

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free A recent DRM series purporting to simplify support for "transparent bridges" and handling of probe deferrals ironically exposed a use-after-free issue on pmic_glink_altmode probe deferral. This has manifested itself as the display subsystem occasionally failing to initialise and NULL-pointer dereferences during boot of machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Specifically, the dp-hpd bridge is currently registered before all resources have been acquired which means that it can also be deregistered on probe deferrals. In the meantime there is a race window where the new aux bridge driver (or PHY driver previously) may have looked up the dp-hpd bridge and stored a (non-reference-counted) pointer to the bridge which is about to be deallocated. When the display controller is later initialised, this triggers a use-after-free when attaching the bridges: dp -> aux -> dp-hpd (freed) which may, for example, result in the freed bridge failing to attach: [drm:drm_bridge_attach [drm]] *ERROR* failed to attach bridge /soc@0/phy@88eb000 to encoder TMDS-31: -16 or a NULL-pointer dereference: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 ... Call trace: drm_bridge_attach+0x70/0x1a8 [drm] drm_aux_bridge_attach+0x24/0x38 [aux_bridge] drm_bridge_attach+0x80/0x1a8 [drm] dp_bridge_init+0xa8/0x15c [msm] msm_dp_modeset_init+0x28/0xc4 [msm] The DRM bridge implementation is clearly fragile and implicitly built on the assumption that bridges may never go away. In this case, the fix is to move the bridge registration in the pmic_glink_altmode driver to after all resources have been looked up. Incidentally, with the new dp-hpd bridge implementation, which registers child devices, this is also a requirement due to a long-standing issue in driver core that can otherwise lead to a probe deferral loop (see commit fbc35b45f9f6 ("Add documentation on meaning of -EPROBE_DEFER")). [DB: slightly fixed commit message by adding the word 'commit']

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2024-26909?
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free A recent DRM series purporting to simplify support for "transparent bridges" and handling of probe deferrals ironically exposed a use-after-free issue on pmic_glink_altmode probe deferral. This has manifested itself as the display subsystem occasionally failing to initialise and NULL-pointer dereferences during boot of machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Specifically, the dp-hpd bridge is currently registered before all resources have been acquired which means that it can also be deregistered on probe deferrals. In the meantime there is a race window where the new aux bridge driver (or PHY driver previously) may have looked up the dp-hpd bridge and stored a (non-reference-counted) pointer to the bridge which is about to be deallocated. When the display controller is later initialised, this triggers a use-after-free when attaching the bridges: dp -> aux -> dp-hpd (freed) which may, for example, result in the freed bridge failing to attach: [drm:drm_bridge_attach [drm]] *ERROR* failed to attach bridge /soc@0/phy@88eb000 to encoder TMDS-31: -16 or a NULL-pointer dereference: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 ... Call trace: drm_bridge_attach+0x70/0x1a8 [drm] drm_aux_bridge_attach+0x24/0x38 [aux_bridge] drm_bridge_attach+0x80/0x1a8 [drm] dp_bridge_init+0xa8/0x15c [msm] msm_dp_modeset_init+0x28/0xc4 [msm] The DRM bridge implementation is clearly fragile and implicitly built on the assumption that bridges may never go away. In this case, the fix is to move the bridge registration in the pmic_glink_altmode driver to after all resources have been looked up. Incidentally, with the new dp-hpd bridge implementation, which registers child devices, this is also a requirement due to a long-standing issue in driver core that can otherwise lead to a probe deferral loop (see commit fbc35b45f9f6 ("Add documentation on meaning of -EPROBE_DEFER")). [DB: slightly fixed commit message by adding the word 'commit']
How severe is CVE-2024-26909?
CVE-2024-26909 has a CVSS 3.x base score of 5.5, rated medium severity. It is exploitable over local access with low attack complexity, requires low privileges and no user interaction. Impact on confidentiality is none, integrity none, and availability high.
Is CVE-2024-26909 being actively exploited?
It is not currently listed in CISA's KEV catalog. Its EPSS exploit-prediction score is 0% (14th percentile), an estimate of the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
What products are affected by CVE-2024-26909?
CVE-2024-26909 affects Linux Linux Kernel. See the affected-products list for the exact vulnerable versions.
How do I fix CVE-2024-26909?
Review the linked vendor and NVD advisories for patched versions and mitigations, then upgrade or apply the recommended workaround.
Does CVE-2024-26909 have an EU (EUVD) identifier?
Yes. CVE-2024-26909 is tracked in the ENISA EU Vulnerability Database (EUVD) as EUVD-2024-24171.
When was CVE-2024-26909 published?
CVE-2024-26909 was published on 2024-04-17 and last updated on 2026-06-17.

References

Affected products (1)

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