CVE-2024-26909

MEDIUM
Published Apr 17, 2024 Modified Nov 21, 2024 CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free A recent DRM series purporting to simplify support for "transparent bridges" and handling of probe deferrals ironically exposed a use-after-free issue on pmic_glink_altmode probe deferral. This has manifested itself as the display subsystem occasionally failing to initialise and NULL-pointer dereferences during boot of machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Specifically, the dp-hpd bridge is currently registered before all resources have been acquired which means that it can also be deregistered on probe deferrals. In the meantime there is a race window where the new aux bridge driver (or PHY driver previously) may have looked up the dp-hpd bridge and stored a (non-reference-counted) pointer to the bridge which is about to be deallocated. When the display controller is later initialised, this triggers a use-after-free when attaching the bridges: dp -> aux -> dp-hpd (freed) which may, for example, result in the freed bridge failing to attach: [drm:drm_bridge_attach [drm]] *ERROR* failed to attach bridge /soc@0/phy@88eb000 to encoder TMDS-31: -16 or a NULL-pointer dereference: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 ... Call trace: drm_bridge_attach+0x70/0x1a8 [drm] drm_aux_bridge_attach+0x24/0x38 [aux_bridge] drm_bridge_attach+0x80/0x1a8 [drm] dp_bridge_init+0xa8/0x15c [msm] msm_dp_modeset_init+0x28/0xc4 [msm] The DRM bridge implementation is clearly fragile and implicitly built on the assumption that bridges may never go away. In this case, the fix is to move the bridge registration in the pmic_glink_altmode driver to after all resources have been looked up. Incidentally, with the new dp-hpd bridge implementation, which registers child devices, this is also a requirement due to a long-standing issue in driver core that can otherwise lead to a probe deferral loop (see commit fbc35b45f9f6 ("Add documentation on meaning of -EPROBE_DEFER")). [DB: slightly fixed commit message by adding the word 'commit']

Is your site exposed to CVE-2024-26909?

Run a free security scan — no signup, results in seconds.

CVSS v3.1 Score

5.5
MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-416 Use After Free

Affected Products

Vendor Product
linux linux_kernel
linux linux_kernel

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2024-26909? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: soc: qcom: pmic_glink_altmode: fix drm bridge use-after-free A recent DRM series purporting to simplify support for "transparent bridges" and handling of probe deferrals ironically exposed a use-after-free issue on pmic_glink_altmode probe deferral. This has manifested itself as the display subsystem occasionally failing to initialise and NULL-pointer dereferences during boot of machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. Specifically, the dp-hpd bridge is currently registered before all resources have been acquired which means that it can also be deregistered on probe deferrals. In the meantime there is a race window where the new aux bridge driver (or PHY driver previously) may have looked up the dp-hpd bridge and stored a (non-reference-counted) pointer to the bridge which is about to be deallocated. When the display controller is later initialised, this triggers a use-after-free when attaching the bridges: dp -> aux -> dp-hpd (freed) which may, for example, result in the freed bridge failing to attach: [drm:drm_bridge_attach [drm]] *ERROR* failed to attach bridge /soc@0/phy@88eb000 to encoder TMDS-31: -16 or a NULL-pointer dereference: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000000 ... Call trace: drm_bridge_attach+0x70/0x1a8 [drm] drm_aux_bridge_attach+0x24/0x38 [aux_bridge] drm_bridge_attach+0x80/0x1a8 [drm] dp_bridge_init+0xa8/0x15c [msm] msm_dp_modeset_init+0x28/0xc4 [msm] The DRM bridge implementation is clearly fragile and implicitly built on the assumption that bridges may never go away. In this case, the fix is to move the bridge registration in the pmic_glink_altmode driver to after all resources have been looked up. Incidentally, with the new dp-hpd bridge implementation, which registers child devices, this is also a requirement due to a long-standing issue in driver core that can otherwise lead to a probe deferral loop (see commit fbc35b45f9f6 ("Add documentation on meaning of -EPROBE_DEFER")). [DB: slightly fixed commit message by adding the word 'commit'] It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.5 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2024-26909? +
CVE-2024-26909 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance.
What products are affected by CVE-2024-26909? +
CVE-2024-26909 affects products from linux, specifically: linux_kernel. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2024-26909? +
You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

Related Vulnerabilities

Don't wait for an exploit

Scan your website for vulnerabilities like CVE-2024-26909 — free, no signup required.