CVE-2024-46845
kernel: tracing/timerlat: Only clear timer if a kthread exists
Severity
LowRed Hat Product Security
CVSS 3.1
Review impact separately from score.
Published · September 27, 2024
Updated · August 5, 2026
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
tracing/timerlat: Only clear timer if a kthread exists
The timerlat tracer can use user space threads to check for osnoise and timer latency. If the program using this is killed via a SIGTERM, the threads are shutdown one at a time and another tracing instance can start up resetting the threads before they are fully closed. That causes the hrtimer assigned to the kthread to be shutdown and freed twice when the dying thread finally closes the file descriptors, causing a use-after-free bug.
Only cancel the hrtimer if the associated thread is still around. Also add the interface_lock around the resetting of the tlat_var->kthread.
Note, this is just a quick fix that can be backported to stable. A real fix is to have a better synchronization between the shutdown of old threads and the starting of new ones.
Statement
Only root user can enable this type of tracing. Even if enabled, the security impact is limited.
CVSS score applicability
The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.
Mitigation
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options don't meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.
CVSS / CWE
CVSS 3.1 · 4.1CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CWE-416 · Use After Free