Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2024-40958 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 OS Credential Dumping (T1003); ranked at the 18th 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
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-38755
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: netns: Make get_net_ns() handle zero refcount net Syzkaller hit a warning: refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 7890 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0xdf/0x1d0 Modules linked in: CPU: 3 PID:…
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7890 Comm: tun Not tainted 6.10.0-rc3-00100-gcaa4f9578aba-dirty #310 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xdf/0x1d0 Code: 41 49 04 31 ff 89 de e8 9f 1e cd fe 84 db 75 9c e8 76 26 cd fe c6 05 b6 41 49 04 01 90 48 c7 c7 b8 8e 25 86 e8 d2 05 b5 fe 90 <0f> 0b 90 90 e9 79 ff ff ff e8 53 26 cd fe 0f b6 1 RSP: 0018:ffff8881067b7da0 EFLAGS: 00010286 RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: ffffffff811c72ac RDX: ffff8881026a2140 RSI: ffffffff811c72b5 RDI: 0000000000000001 RBP: ffff8881067b7db0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 205b5d3730353139 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 205d303938375420 R12: ffff8881086500c4 R13: ffff8881086500c4 R14: ffff8881086500b0 R15: ffff888108650040 FS: 00007f5b2961a4c0(0000) GS:ffff88823bd00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 000055d7ed36fd18 CR3: 00000001482f6000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0xa3/0xc0 ? __warn+0xa5/0x1c0 ? refcount_warn_saturate+0xdf/0x1d0 ? report_bug+0x1fc/0x2d0 ? refcount_warn_saturate+0xdf/0x1d0 ? handle_bug+0xa1/0x110 ? exc_invalid_op+0x3c/0xb0 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1f/0x30 ? __warn_printk+0xcc/0x140 ? __warn_printk+0xd5/0x140 ? refcount_warn_saturate+0xdf/0x1d0 get_net_ns+0xa4/0xc0 ? __pfx_get_net_ns+0x10/0x10 open_related_ns+0x5a/0x130 __tun_chr_ioctl+0x1616/0x2370 ? __sanitizer_cov_trace_switch+0x58/0xa0 ? __sanitizer_cov_trace_const_cmp2+0x1c/0x30 ? __pfx_tun_chr_ioctl+0x10/0x10 tun_chr_ioctl+0x2f/0x40 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x11b/0x160 x64_sys_call+0x1211/0x20d0 do_syscall_64+0x9e/0x1d0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f5b28f165d7 Code: b3 66 90 48 8b 05 b1 48 2d 00 64 c7 00 26 00 00 00 48 c7 c0 ff ff ff ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 b8 10 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 8b 0d 81 48 2d 00 8 RSP: 002b:00007ffc2b59c5e8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f5b28f165d7 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00000000000054e3 RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007ffc2b59c650 R08: 00007f5b291ed8c0 R09: 00007f5b2961a4c0 R10: 0000000029690010 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000400730 R13: 00007ffc2b59cf40 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 </TASK> Kernel panic - not syncing: kernel: panic_on_warn set ... This is trigger as below: ns0 ns1 tun_set_iff() //dev is tun0 tun->dev = dev //ip link set tun0 netns ns1 put_net() //ref is 0 __tun_chr_ioctl() //TUNGETDEVNETNS net = dev_net(tun->dev); open_related_ns(&net->ns, get_net_ns); //ns1 get_net_ns() get_net() //addition on 0 Use maybe_get_net() in get_net_ns in case net's ref is zero to fix this
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 3 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
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.
Vulnerability identification processes can discover use-after-free issues via scanning or analysis but do not prevent their introduction.
Routine patching removes known use-after-free instances after they have been introduced in released software.
Secure SDLC practices directly incorporate memory-safety tooling and reviews that prevent most use-after-free defects.
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.
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` (higher-evidence 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. blocks CWE-416
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230279 RHEL 8 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-416
RHEL 9 (1 rule)
- V-257794 RHEL 9 must clear memory when it is freed to prevent use-after-free attacks. blocks CWE-416