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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2024-38602 json

ax25: Fix reference count leak issues of ax25_dev

published 2024-06-19 2 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-37465

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.2%
EPSS 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 11%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ax25: Fix reference count leak issues of ax25_dev

The ax25_addr_ax25dev() and ax25_dev_device_down() exist a reference count leak issue of the object "ax25_dev".

Memory leak issue in ax25_addr_ax25dev():

The reference count of the object "ax25_dev" can be increased multiple times in ax25_addr_ax25dev(). This will cause a memory leak.

Memory leak issues in ax25_dev_device_down():

The reference count of ax25_dev is set to 1 in ax25_dev_device_up() and then increase the reference count when ax25_dev is added to ax25_dev_list. As a result, the reference count of ax25_dev is 2. But when the device is shutting down. The ax25_dev_device_down() drops the reference count once or twice depending on if we goto unlock_put or not, which will cause memory leak.

As for the issue of ax25_addr_ax25dev(), it is impossible for one pointer to be on a list twice. So add a break in ax25_addr_ax25dev(). As for the issue of ax25_dev_device_down(), increase the reference count of ax25_dev once in ax25_dev_device_up() and decrease the reference count of ax25_dev after it is removed from the ax25_dev_list.

Patch / fix

  • Linux Linux 4.15, 4.20, 5.5, 5.11, 5.16, 6.1.93, 6.6.33, 6.8.12, 6.9.3, 6.10
  • linux Debian 12 6.1.94-1
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.8.12-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2024-38602

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-200.220
  • linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-125.135
  • linux Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-40.40
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1135.145
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1072.78
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 6.8.0-1013.14
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1139.148
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1071.79

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2024-38602

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-9.1
  • kernel-source-rt Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-9.1
  • kernel-source Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-default Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-18.1
  • kernel-default-base Linux Micro 6.0 6.4.0-17.1.1.51
  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.1
  • kernel-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 5.14.21-150500.55.80.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:20028-1SUSE-SU-2025:20008-1SUSE-SU-2024:3483-1SUSE-SU-2024:3209-1SUSE-SU-2024:3190-1SUSE-SU-2024:2973-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2024-38602 updated cvss 6.1

kernel: ax25: Fix reference count leak issues of ax25_dev

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 11% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.