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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.5

CVE-2020-10690 json

There is a use-after-free in kernel versions before 5.5 due to a race condition between the release of ptp_clock and cdev while resource de…

published 2020-05-08 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-3124

cvss
6.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 29%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

There is a use-after-free in kernel versions before 5.5 due to a race condition between the release of ptp_clock and cdev while resource deallocation. When a (high privileged) process allocates a ptp device file (like /dev/ptpX) and voluntarily goes to sleep. During this time if the underlying device is removed, it can cause an exploitable condition as the process wakes up to terminate and clean all attached files. The system crashes due to the cdev structure being invalid (as already freed) which is pointed to by the inode.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 5.5
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.4.8-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-10690

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-185.215
  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-88.88
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1110.121
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1060.62
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1055.59
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-88.88~16.04.1
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.3.0-40.32~18.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1076.83

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-10690

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 RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • perf RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • bpftool RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • python-perf RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • kernel-kdump RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • kernel-tools RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • kernel-tools-libs RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7
  • kernel-bootwrapper RHEL 7 3.10.0-1160.el7

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:4060RHSA-2020:4062RHSA-2020:1567RHSA-2020:1769

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:2487-1SUSE-SU-2020:2478-1SUSE-SU-2020:2156-1SUSE-SU-2020:1663-1SUSE-SU-2020:1605-1SUSE-SU-2020:1604-1

  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.3
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-obs-build openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:0801-1

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-2020-10690 updated cvss 6.5

kernel: use-after-free in cdev_put() when a PTP device is removed while it's chardev is open

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, kernel-alt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-tools, +3 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-193.el8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel 4.18.0-193.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-193.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-193.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-193.el8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1769
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel 3.10.0-1160.el7, bpftool 3.10.0-1160.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-1160.el7, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel 3.10.0-1160.el7, bpftool 3.10.0-1160.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-1160.el7, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4060
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real Time for NFV (v. 7) kernel-rt 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-kvm 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-trace 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-trace-kvm 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7, kernel-rt-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.rt56.1131.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4062
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.rt13.51.el8, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:1567
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel 3.10.0-1160.el7, bpftool 3.10.0-1160.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-kdump 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-1160.el7, +7 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 3.10.0-1160.el7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel 3.10.0-1160.el7, bpftool 3.10.0-1160.el7, python-perf 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools 3.10.0-1160.el7, kernel-tools-libs 3.10.0-1160.el7, +2 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 3.10.0-1160.el7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2020:4060
show 1 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel
    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

Exploit prediction

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 29% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 6.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.4 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • Red Hat kernel

Classification

Weakness
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.