Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-26895

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 5.5 – 5.10.214

Published
17 April 2024
Modified
04 August 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0024 14th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-26895 is a high-severity Use After Free (CWE-416) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 14th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-8 (Security and Privacy Engineering Principles) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: wifi: wilc1000: prevent use-after-free on vif when cleaning up all interfaces wilc_netdev_cleanup currently triggers a KASAN warning, which can be observed on interface registration error path, or simply by removing…

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the module/unbinding device from driver: echo spi0.1 > /sys/bus/spi/drivers/wilc1000_spi/unbind ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in wilc_netdev_cleanup+0x508/0x5cc Read of size 4 at addr c54d1ce8 by task sh/86 CPU: 0 PID: 86 Comm: sh Not tainted 6.8.0-rc1+ #117 Hardware name: Atmel SAMA5 unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x34/0x58 dump_stack_lvl from print_report+0x154/0x500 print_report from kasan_report+0xac/0xd8 kasan_report from wilc_netdev_cleanup+0x508/0x5cc wilc_netdev_cleanup from wilc_bus_remove+0xc8/0xec wilc_bus_remove from spi_remove+0x8c/0xac spi_remove from device_release_driver_internal+0x434/0x5f8 device_release_driver_internal from unbind_store+0xbc/0x108 unbind_store from kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x398/0x584 kernfs_fop_write_iter from vfs_write+0x728/0xf88 vfs_write from ksys_write+0x110/0x1e4 ksys_write from ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x1c [...] Allocated by task 1: kasan_save_track+0x30/0x5c __kasan_kmalloc+0x8c/0x94 __kmalloc_node+0x1cc/0x3e4 kvmalloc_node+0x48/0x180 alloc_netdev_mqs+0x68/0x11dc alloc_etherdev_mqs+0x28/0x34 wilc_netdev_ifc_init+0x34/0x8ec wilc_cfg80211_init+0x690/0x910 wilc_bus_probe+0xe0/0x4a0 spi_probe+0x158/0x1b0 really_probe+0x270/0xdf4 __driver_probe_device+0x1dc/0x580 driver_probe_device+0x60/0x140 __driver_attach+0x228/0x5d4 bus_for_each_dev+0x13c/0x1a8 bus_add_driver+0x2a0/0x608 driver_register+0x24c/0x578 do_one_initcall+0x180/0x310 kernel_init_freeable+0x424/0x484 kernel_init+0x20/0x148 ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 Freed by task 86: kasan_save_track+0x30/0x5c kasan_save_free_info+0x38/0x58 __kasan_slab_free+0xe4/0x140 kfree+0xb0/0x238 device_release+0xc0/0x2a8 kobject_put+0x1d4/0x46c netdev_run_todo+0x8fc/0x11d0 wilc_netdev_cleanup+0x1e4/0x5cc wilc_bus_remove+0xc8/0xec spi_remove+0x8c/0xac device_release_driver_internal+0x434/0x5f8 unbind_store+0xbc/0x108 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x398/0x584 vfs_write+0x728/0xf88 ksys_write+0x110/0x1e4 ret_fast_syscall+0x0/0x1c [...] David Mosberger-Tan initial investigation [1] showed that this use-after-free is due to netdevice unregistration during vif list traversal. When unregistering a net device, since the needs_free_netdev has been set to true during registration, the netdevice object is also freed, and as a consequence, the corresponding vif object too, since it is attached to it as private netdevice data. The next occurrence of the loop then tries to access freed vif pointer to the list to move forward in the list. Fix this use-after-free thanks to two mechanisms: - navigate in the list with list_for_each_entry_safe, which allows to safely modify the list as we go through each element. For each element, remove it from the list with list_del_rcu - make sure to wait for RCU grace period end after each vif removal to make sure it is safe to free the corresponding vif too (through unregister_netdev) Since we are in a RCU "modifier" path (not a "reader" path), and because such path is expected not to be concurrent to any other modifier (we are using the vif_mutex lock), we do not need to use RCU list API, that's why we can benefit from list_for_each_entry_safe. [1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/ab077dbe58b1ea5de0a3b2ca21f275a07af967d2.camel@egauge.net/

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
5.5 — 5.10.214 · 5.11 — 5.15.153 · 5.16 — 6.1.83
debian
debian linux
10.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.4.3

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover use-after-free bugs through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.

Engineering principles can require memory-safe constructs or languages that structurally avoid introducing use-after-free.

Process isolation confines the blast radius of use-after-free memory corruption to a single execution domain.

Memory protection controls limit exploitation impact by blocking unauthorized code execution from dangling pointers.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing in development can detect use-after-free bugs before release.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates memory-safety practices that reduce use-after-free defects.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify memory-management rules that mitigate use-after-free.

prevents

Secure architecture principles include memory-safety design choices that limit use-after-free exposure.

prevents

Secure coding standards directly prescribe avoidance of use-after-free patterns.

prevents

Change-management processes help ensure memory-safety fixes are deployed consistently.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248592 OL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
  • V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. prevents CWE-416

References