Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-53121

Race Condition in Linux Kernel 5.1 – 6.1.119

Published
02 December 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 0.0021 11th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-53121 is a high-severity Race Condition (CWE-362) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 11th 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 SC-39 (Process Isolation) and SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/mlx5: fs, lock FTE when checking if active The referenced commits introduced a two-step process for deleting FTEs: - Lock the FTE, delete it from hardware, set the hardware deletion…

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function to NULL and unlock the FTE. - Lock the parent flow group, delete the software copy of the FTE, and remove it from the xarray. However, this approach encounters a race condition if a rule with the same match value is added simultaneously. In this scenario, fs_core may set the hardware deletion function to NULL prematurely, causing a panic during subsequent rule deletions. To prevent this, ensure the active flag of the FTE is checked under a lock, which will prevent the fs_core layer from attaching a new steering rule to an FTE that is in the process of deletion. [ 438.967589] MOSHE: 2496 mlx5_del_flow_rules del_hw_func [ 438.968205] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 438.968654] refcount_t: decrement hit 0; leaking memory. [ 438.969249] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 8957 at lib/refcount.c:31 refcount_warn_saturate+0xfb/0x110 [ 438.970054] Modules linked in: act_mirred cls_flower act_gact sch_ingress openvswitch nsh mlx5_vdpa vringh vhost_iotlb vdpa mlx5_ib mlx5_core xt_conntrack xt_MASQUERADE nf_conntrack_netlink nfnetlink xt_addrtype iptable_nat nf_nat br_netfilter rpcsec_gss_krb5 auth_rpcgss oid_registry overlay rpcrdma rdma_ucm ib_iser libiscsi scsi_transport_iscsi ib_umad rdma_cm ib_ipoib iw_cm ib_cm ib_uverbs ib_core zram zsmalloc fuse [last unloaded: cls_flower] [ 438.973288] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 8957 Comm: tc Not tainted 6.12.0-rc1+ #8 [ 438.973888] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.13.0-0-gf21b5a4aeb02-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 438.974874] RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0xfb/0x110 [ 438.975363] Code: 40 66 3b 82 c6 05 16 e9 4d 01 01 e8 1f 7c a0 ff 0f 0b c3 cc cc cc cc 48 c7 c7 10 66 3b 82 c6 05 fd e8 4d 01 01 e8 05 7c a0 ff <0f> 0b c3 cc cc cc cc 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 00 90 [ 438.976947] RSP: 0018:ffff888124a53610 EFLAGS: 00010286 [ 438.977446] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff888119d56de0 RCX: 0000000000000000 [ 438.978090] RDX: ffff88852c828700 RSI: ffff88852c81b3c0 RDI: ffff88852c81b3c0 [ 438.978721] RBP: ffff888120fa0e88 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff888124a534b0 [ 438.979353] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff888119d56de0 [ 438.979979] R13: ffff888120fa0ec0 R14: ffff888120fa0ee8 R15: ffff888119d56de0 [ 438.980607] FS: 00007fe6dcc0f800(0000) GS:ffff88852c800000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 438.983984] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 438.984544] CR2: 00000000004275e0 CR3: 0000000186982001 CR4: 0000000000372eb0 [ 438.985205] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [ 438.985842] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [ 438.986507] Call Trace: [ 438.986799] <TASK> [ 438.987070] ? __warn+0x7d/0x110 [ 438.987426] ? refcount_warn_saturate+0xfb/0x110 [ 438.987877] ? report_bug+0x17d/0x190 [ 438.988261] ? prb_read_valid+0x17/0x20 [ 438.988659] ? handle_bug+0x53/0x90 [ 438.989054] ? exc_invalid_op+0x14/0x70 [ 438.989458] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20 [ 438.989883] ? refcount_warn_saturate+0xfb/0x110 [ 438.990348] mlx5_del_flow_rules+0x2f7/0x340 [mlx5_core] [ 438.990932] __mlx5_eswitch_del_rule+0x49/0x170 [mlx5_core] [ 438.991519] ? mlx5_lag_is_sriov+0x3c/0x50 [mlx5_core] [ 438.992054] ? xas_load+0x9/0xb0 [ 438.992407] mlx5e_tc_rule_unoffload+0x45/0xe0 [mlx5_core] [ 438.993037] mlx5e_tc_del_fdb_flow+0x2a6/0x2e0 [mlx5_core] [ 438.993623] mlx5e_flow_put+0x29/0x60 [mlx5_core] [ 438.994161] mlx5e_delete_flower+0x261/0x390 [mlx5_core] [ 438.994728] tc_setup_cb_destroy+0xb9/0x190 [ 438.995150] fl_hw_destroy_filter+0x94/0xc0 [cls_flower] [ 438.995650] fl_change+0x11a4/0x13c0 [cls_flower] [ 438.996105] tc_new_tfilter+0x347/0xbc0 [ 438.996503] ? __ ---truncated---

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

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Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.12 · 5.1 — 6.1.119 · 6.2 — 6.6.63 · 6.7 — 6.11.10

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V10.4.2
  • V10.4.5
  • V15.1.3
  • V15.4.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Maintaining separate execution domains for each process structurally eliminates unintended concurrent access to the same shared resources.

Preventing unintended information transfer through shared system resources directly addresses the improper concurrent modification that defines a race condition.

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 require proper synchronization primitives and concurrency testing that prevent race conditions.

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 can detect race conditions, but does not prevent them at design or coding time.

prevents

Secure SDLC mandates concurrency controls and synchronization primitives that directly prevent race conditions.

prevents

Application security requirements can specify thread-safety and locking rules, but do not prescribe implementation details.

prevents

Secure architecture principles require proper synchronization and resource isolation, addressing the root cause of CWE-362.

prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid unsafe concurrent access patterns and mandate atomic operations or locks.

none

Change management reduces introduction of concurrency bugs during updates, yet does not address the weakness itself.

References