Junglewise Threat Intelligence

CVE-2024-47713: Linux Kernel mac80211 denial of service in ieee80211_do_stop

CVE-2024-47713 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2024-10-21

Technologies: Linux Kernel. Vendors: Linux.

Executive brief

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's wireless networking component could allow a local user to cause a system crash or instability. The issue occurs when the system attempts to shut down a wireless interface while certain internal processes are still active. This can lead to a kernel warning or a complete system hang, impacting the availability of the device.

Technical details

A race condition or improper state management in the mac80211 stack's ieee80211_do_stop() function leads to a kernel warning in __local_bh_enable_ip. The root cause is that ieee80211_free_txskb() may eventually call __dev_queue_xmit(), which requires interrupts to be enabled; however, it was being called within a spin_lock_irqsave section where interrupts are disabled. This violation of kernel locking primitives can be triggered locally, leading to a denial of service (system hang or crash). The fix implements a two-phase reclamation process where socket buffers (skbs) are unlinked under the lock but actually freed outside of the interrupt-disabled section.

Affected products

  • Linux Linux Kernel 2.6.32 to 5.10.226, 5.11 to 5.15.167, 5.16 to 6.1.112, 6.2 to 6.6.53, 6.7 to 6.10.12, 6.11 to 6.11.1

Timeline

  • 2024-09-06: patched: Initial patch proposed by Dmitry Antipov
  • 2024-10-21: advisory: CVE-2024-47713 published

References

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