Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2024-36936
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: efi/unaccepted: touch soft lockup during memory accept Commit 50e782a86c98 ("efi/unaccepted: Fix soft lockups caused by parallel memory acceptance") has released the spinlock so other CPUs can do memory acceptance in parallel and not triggers softlockup on other CPUs. However the softlock up was intermittent shown up if the memory of the TD guest is large, and the timeout of softlockup is set to 1 second: RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore Call Trace: ? __hrtimer_run_queues <IRQ> ? hrtimer_interrupt ? watchdog_timer_fn ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? __pfx_watchdog_timer_fn ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt </IRQ> ? __hrtimer_run_queues <TASK> ? hrtimer_interrupt ? asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt accept_memory try_to_accept_memory do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page get_page_from_freelist __handle_mm_fault __alloc_pages __folio_alloc ? __tdx_hypercall handle_mm_fault vma_alloc_folio do_user_addr_fault do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page exc_page_fault ? __do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page asm_exc_page_fault __handle_mm_fault When the local irq is enabled at the end of accept_memory(), the softlockup detects that the watchdog on single CPU has not been fed for a while. That is to say, even other CPUs will not be blocked by spinlock, the current CPU might be stunk with local irq disabled for a while, which hurts not only nmi watchdog but also softlockup. Chao Gao pointed out that the memory accept could be time costly and there was similar report before. Thus to avoid any softlocup detection during this stage, give the softlockup a flag to skip the timeout check at the end of accept_memory(), by invoking touch_softlockup_watchdog().
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisShared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.
General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 6.5.9, < 6.6>= 6.6.1, < 6.6.55>= 6.7, < 6.8.10= 6.6= 6.9CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped6.66.6.556.8.10
6.6.55 (for 6.5.x/6.6.x kernels) or 6.8.10 (for 6.7.x/6.8.x kernels)
- Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
- Check which affected version range your kernel falls into (>= 6.5.9 and < 6.6, >= 6.6.1 and < 6.6.55, >= 6.7 and < 6.8.10, or exactly 6.6)
- For kernels 6.5.9 through 6.6 (excluding 6.6.55+), upgrade to kernel 6.6.55 or later
- For kernels >= 6.6.1 and < 6.6.55, upgrade to kernel 6.6.55 or later
- For kernels >= 6.7 and < 6.8.10, upgrade to kernel 6.8.10 or later
- Apply the upgrade using your distribution's package manager (e.g., 'apt update && apt upgrade' for Debian/Ubuntu, 'yum update' for RHEL/CentOS, or 'dnf upgrade' for Fedora)
- Reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-36936 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-36936 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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