Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2024-43870
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: perf: Fix event leak upon exit When a task is scheduled out, pending sigtrap deliveries are deferred to the target task upon resume to userspace via task_work. However failures while adding an event's callback to the task_work engine are ignored. And since the last call for events exit happen after task work is eventually closed, there is a small window during which pending sigtrap can be queued though ignored, leaking the event refcount addition such as in the following scenario: TASK A ----- do_exit() exit_task_work(tsk); <IRQ> perf_event_overflow() event->pending_sigtrap = pending_id; irq_work_queue(&event->pending_irq); </IRQ> =========> PREEMPTION: TASK A -> TASK B event_sched_out() event->pending_sigtrap = 0; atomic_long_inc_not_zero(&event->refcount) // FAILS: task work has exited task_work_add(&event->pending_task) [...] <IRQ WORK> perf_pending_irq() // early return: event->oncpu = -1 </IRQ WORK> [...] =========> TASK B -> TASK A perf_event_exit_task(tsk) perf_event_exit_event() free_event() WARN(atomic_long_cmpxchg(&event->refcount, 1, 0) != 1) // leak event due to unexpected refcount == 2 As a result the event is never released while the task exits. Fix this with appropriate task_work_add()'s error handling.
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 analysisAllocated memory is never released on some path, so a long-running service or a repeatedly triggered request steadily consumes memory until performance degrades or the process crashes. Attackers exploit it by simply driving the leaking path. Remediation is pairing every allocation with a release and using ownership patterns or tooling to catch what leaks.
General guidance for the memory leak 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
>= 5.15.84, < 5.15.165>= 6.0.14, < 6.1>= 6.1.1, < 6.1.103>= 6.2, < 6.6.44>= 6.7, < 6.10.3= 6.1CVSS 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 · scoped5.15.1656.16.1.103
Upgrade to Linux kernel 5.15.165+, 6.1.103+, or 6.6.44+ (depending on your base kernel branch). For 6.0.x users, upgrade to 6.1.103+ as 6.0 is end-of-life.
- Identify the current running kernel version using `uname -r`
- Check if the current kernel version falls within the affected range: 5.15.84 to 5.15.164, 6.0.14 to 6.0.x, 6.1.1 to 6.1.102, or 6.2 to 6.6.43
- If affected, plan for a system reboot after upgrading the kernel package
- For Debian-based systems: run `apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade` or install specific kernel packages from the distribution's repository
- For Red Hat-based systems: run `yum update kernel` or `dnf update kernel`
- After upgrading, reboot the system to load the fixed kernel
- Verify the fix by running `uname -r` to confirm the new kernel version and checking that it is >= 5.15.165, >= 6.1.103, or >= 6.6.44
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-2024-43870 — 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-2024-43870 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
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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