CVE-2024-26923

Description

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel, where the management of inter-process communication uses AF_UNIX sockets. The issue arises from a race condition where a partially initialized socket with specific permissions carrying SCM_RIGHTS is improperly handled during garbage collection. This situation leads to an incorrect count of active sockets, potentially causing resources to remain unaccounted for and never released.

Statement

Red Hat rates the security impact of this vulnerability as Moderate due to the worst-case scenario resulting in a resource consumption attack. Considering this is a timing attack and is hard to replicate outside of very controlled environments, the vulnerability is not rated higher.

Mitigation

There are no known mitigations to this issue and updating to the latest Linux kernel version is recommended to address this vulnerability​.

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score74.77.8
Attack VectorLocalLocalLocal
Attack ComplexityHighHighLow
Privileges RequiredLowLowLow
User InteractionNoneNoneNone
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedUnchanged
ConfidentialityHighNoneHigh
Integrity ImpactHighNoneHigh
Availability ImpactHighHighHigh

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)

When a race condition makes it possible to bypass a resource cleanup routine or trigger multiple initialization routines, it may lead to resource exhaustion.

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Instability

When a race condition allows multiple control flows to access a resource simultaneously, it might lead the product(s) into unexpected states, possibly resulting in a crash.

Confidentiality,Integrity

Technical Impact: Read Files or Directories; Read Application Data

When a race condition is combined with predictable resource names and loose permissions, it may be possible for an attacker to overwrite or access confidential data (CWE-59).

Access Control

Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Bypass Protection Mechanism

This can have security implications when the expected synchronization is in security-critical code, such as recording whether a user is authenticated or modifying important state information that should not be influenced by an outsider.

Frequently Asked Questions

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