Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2024-43863

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-08-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.15.165 / 6.1.104 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/vmwgfx: Fix a deadlock in dma buf fence polling Introduce a version of the fence ops that on release doesn't remove the fence from the pending list, and thus doesn't require a lock to fix poll->fence wait->fence unref deadlocks. vmwgfx overwrites the wait callback to iterate over the list of all fences and update their status, to do that it holds a lock to prevent the list modifcations from other threads. The fence destroy callback both deletes the fence and removes it from the list of pending fences, for which it holds a lock. dma buf polling cb unrefs a fence after it's been signaled: so the poll calls the wait, which signals the fences, which are being destroyed. The destruction tries to acquire the lock on the pending fences list which it can never get because it's held by the wait from which it was called. Old bug, but not a lot of userspace apps were using dma-buf polling interfaces. Fix those, in particular this fixes KDE stalls/deadlock.

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 analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-667

Shared 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
Affected:>= 3.18, < 5.15.165>= 5.16, < 6.1.104>= 6.2, < 6.6.45>= 6.7, < 6.10.4= 6.11

CVSS 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 · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.15.165 / 6.1.104 / 6.6.45 or later
Fixed in 5.15.1656.1.1046.6.45
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Linux Kernel 5.15.165 / 6.1.104 / 6.6.45 / 6.10.4 (or later stable release)

  1. Identify the current running kernel version using `uname -r`
  2. Determine which version range your current kernel falls into based on affected versions: >= 3.18, < 5.15.165; >= 5.16, < 6.1.104; >= 6.2, < 6.6.45; or >= 6.7, < 6.10.4
  3. If using kernel 5.15.x, upgrade to kernel version 5.15.165 or later
  4. If using kernel 6.1.x, upgrade to kernel version 6.1.104 or later
  5. If using kernel 6.2.x through 6.5.x, upgrade to kernel version 6.6.45 or later
  6. If using kernel 6.7.x through 6.9.x, upgrade to kernel version 6.10.4 or later
  7. Reboot the system to apply the new kernel
  8. Verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version matches the fixed release
Caveat Kernel upgrades may require recompiling out-of-tree modules; ensure driver compatibility (particularly vmwgfx) before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-43863 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-43863 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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