Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-56664

Memory Safety in Linux Kernel 4.20 – 6.6.67

Published
27 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 0.0018 8th 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-2024-56664 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 Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 8th 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.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf, sockmap: Fix race between element replace and close() Element replace (with a socket different from the one stored) may race with socket's close() link popping & unlinking. __sock_map_delete() unconditionally…

more

unrefs the (wrong) element: // set map[0] = s0 map_update_elem(map, 0, s0) // drop fd of s0 close(s0) sock_map_close() lock_sock(sk) (s0!) sock_map_remove_links(sk) link = sk_psock_link_pop() sock_map_unlink(sk, link) sock_map_delete_from_link // replace map[0] with s1 map_update_elem(map, 0, s1) sock_map_update_elem (s1!) lock_sock(sk) sock_map_update_common psock = sk_psock(sk) spin_lock(&stab->lock) osk = stab->sks[idx] sock_map_add_link(..., &stab->sks[idx]) sock_map_unref(osk, &stab->sks[idx]) psock = sk_psock(osk) sk_psock_put(sk, psock) if (refcount_dec_and_test(&psock)) sk_psock_drop(sk, psock) spin_unlock(&stab->lock) unlock_sock(sk) __sock_map_delete spin_lock(&stab->lock) sk = *psk // s1 replaced s0; sk == s1 if (!sk_test || sk_test == sk) // sk_test (s0) != sk (s1); no branch sk = xchg(psk, NULL) if (sk) sock_map_unref(sk, psk) // unref s1; sks[idx] will dangle psock = sk_psock(sk) sk_psock_put(sk, psock) if (refcount_dec_and_test()) sk_psock_drop(sk, psock) spin_unlock(&stab->lock) release_sock(sk) Then close(map) enqueues bpf_map_free_deferred, which finally calls sock_map_free(). This results in some refcount_t warnings along with a KASAN splat [1]. Fix __sock_map_delete(), do not allow sock_map_unref() on elements that may have been replaced. [1]: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in sock_map_free+0x10e/0x330 Write of size 4 at addr ffff88811f5b9100 by task kworker/u64:12/1063 CPU: 14 UID: 0 PID: 1063 Comm: kworker/u64:12 Not tainted 6.12.0+ #125 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS Arch Linux 1.16.3-1-1 04/01/2014 Workqueue: events_unbound bpf_map_free_deferred Call Trace: <TASK> dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x90 print_report+0x174/0x4f6 kasan_report+0xb9/0x190 kasan_check_range+0x10f/0x1e0 sock_map_free+0x10e/0x330 bpf_map_free_deferred+0x173/0x320 process_one_work+0x846/0x1420 worker_thread+0x5b3/0xf80 kthread+0x29e/0x360 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK> Allocated by task 1202: kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x10/0x30 __kasan_slab_alloc+0x85/0x90 kmem_cache_alloc_noprof+0x131/0x450 sk_prot_alloc+0x5b/0x220 sk_alloc+0x2c/0x870 unix_create1+0x88/0x8a0 unix_create+0xc5/0x180 __sock_create+0x241/0x650 __sys_socketpair+0x1ce/0x420 __x64_sys_socketpair+0x92/0x100 do_syscall_64+0x93/0x180 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Freed by task 46: kasan_save_stack+0x1e/0x40 kasan_save_track+0x10/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x37/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x4b/0x70 kmem_cache_free+0x1a1/0x590 __sk_destruct+0x388/0x5a0 sk_psock_destroy+0x73e/0xa50 process_one_work+0x846/0x1420 worker_thread+0x5b3/0xf80 kthread+0x29e/0x360 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 The bu ---truncated---

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.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-52502Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2025-21718Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-36899Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
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CVE-2024-39503Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-52847Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-56556Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-49981Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2024-53186Same product: Linux Linux Kernel
CVE-2023-3397Same product: Linux Linux Kernel

Affected Assets

linux
linux kernel
6.13 · 4.20 — 6.6.67 · 6.7 — 6.12.6

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)
  • V10.4.2
  • V10.4.5
  • V15.1.3
  • V15.4.1

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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