--- id: CVE-2024-57979 title: |- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pps: Fix a use-after-free On a board running ntpd and gpsd, I'm seeing a consistent use-after-free in sys_exit() from gpsd when rebooting: pps pps1: removed -… summary: |- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pps: Fix a use-after-free On a board running ntpd and gpsd, I'm seeing a consistent use-after-free in sys_exit() from gpsd when rebooting: pps pps1: removed -… severity: high cvss: 7.8 cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H' cwe: - CWE-416 vendor: linux product: linux_kernel affected: - 'linux_kernel >= 3.2.40, < 3.3' - 'linux_kernel >= 3.4.87, < 3.5' - 'linux_kernel >= 3.8.1, < 5.4.291' - 'linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.235' - 'linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.179' - 'linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.129' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.76' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.13' - 'linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.2' patched: - linux_kernel 6.13.2 published: '2025-02-27' updated: '2026-07-14' source: NVD sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-57979' references: - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1a7735ab2cb9747518a7416fb5929e85442dec62' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/785c78ed0d39d1717cca3ef931d3e51337b5e90e' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7e5ee3281dc09014367f5112b6d566ba36ea2d49' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/85241f7de216f8298f6e48540ea13d7dcd100870' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/91932db1d96b2952299ce30c1c693d834d10ace6' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c4041b6b0a7a3def8cf3f3d6120ff337bc4c40f7' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c79a39dc8d060b9e64e8b0fa9d245d44befeefbe' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cd3bbcb6b3a7caa5ce67de76723b6d8531fb7f64' label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 - url: 'https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00028.html' label: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 - url: 'https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/05/msg00030.html' label: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108 - url: 'https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-019113.html' label: 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e - url: 'https://cert-portal.siemens.com/productcert/html/ssa-265688.html' label: 0b142b55-0307-4c5a-b3c9-f314f3fb7c5e tags: - nvd - cve.org epss: 0.00261 epssPercentile: 0.18179 ingestedAt: '2026-07-14T13:36:55.092Z' ssvc: exploitation: none automatable: 'no' technicalImpact: total timestamp: '2025-02-27T18:14:45.747533Z' --- ## Overview In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: pps: Fix a use-after-free On a board running ntpd and gpsd, I'm seeing a consistent use-after-free in sys_exit() from gpsd when rebooting: pps pps1: removed ------------[ cut here ]------------ kobject: '(null)' (00000000db4bec24): is not initialized, yet kobject_put() is being called. WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 440 at lib/kobject.c:734 kobject_put+0x120/0x150 CPU: 2 UID: 299 PID: 440 Comm: gpsd Not tainted 6.11.0-rc6-00308-gb31c44928842 #1 Hardware name: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 (DT) pstate: 60000005 (nZCv daif -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : kobject_put+0x120/0x150 lr : kobject_put+0x120/0x150 sp : ffffffc0803d3ae0 x29: ffffffc0803d3ae0 x28: ffffff8042dc9738 x27: 0000000000000001 x26: 0000000000000000 x25: ffffff8042dc9040 x24: ffffff8042dc9440 x23: ffffff80402a4620 x22: ffffff8042ef4bd0 x21: ffffff80405cb600 x20: 000000000008001b x19: ffffff8040b3b6e0 x18: 0000000000000000 x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 696e6920746f6e20 x14: 7369203a29343263 x13: 205d303434542020 x12: 0000000000000000 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : 0000000000000000 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : 0000000000000000 Call trace: kobject_put+0x120/0x150 cdev_put+0x20/0x3c __fput+0x2c4/0x2d8 ____fput+0x1c/0x38 task_work_run+0x70/0xfc do_exit+0x2a0/0x924 do_group_exit+0x34/0x90 get_signal+0x7fc/0x8c0 do_signal+0x128/0x13b4 do_notify_resume+0xdc/0x160 el0_svc+0xd4/0xf8 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x140/0x14c el0t_64_sync+0x190/0x194 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- ...followed by more symptoms of corruption, with similar stacks: refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:62! Kernel panic - not syncing: Oops - BUG: Fatal exception This happens because pps_device_destruct() frees the pps_device with the embedded cdev immediately after calling cdev_del(), but, as the comment above cdev_del() notes, fops for previously opened cdevs are still callable even after cdev_del() returns. I think this bug has always been there: I can't explain why it suddenly started happening every time I reboot this particular board. In commit d953e0e837e6 ("pps: Fix a use-after free bug when unregistering a source."), George Spelvin suggested removing the embedded cdev. That seems like the simplest way to fix this, so I've implemented his suggestion, using __register_chrdev() with pps_idr becoming the source of truth for which minor corresponds to which device. But now that pps_idr defines userspace visibility instead of cdev_add(), we need to be sure the pps->dev refcount can't reach zero while userspace can still find it again. So, the idr_remove() call moves to pps_unregister_cdev(), and pps_idr now holds a reference to pps->dev. pps_core: source serial1 got cdev (251:1) <...> pps pps1: removed pps_core: unregistering pps1 pps_core: deallocating pps1 ## Affected - `linux_kernel >= 3.2.40, < 3.3` - `linux_kernel >= 3.4.87, < 3.5` - `linux_kernel >= 3.8.1, < 5.4.291` - `linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.235` - `linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.179` - `linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.129` - `linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.76` - `linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.13` - `linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.2` ## Remediation Upgrade past the affected range: - `linux_kernel 6.13.2`