Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-40981)

Summary

Vulnerability in Kernel (CVE-2024-40981). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Mitigation: upgrade to 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7 or later.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

batman-adv: bypass empty buckets in batadv_purge_orig_ref()

Many syzbot reports are pointing to soft lockups in
batadv_purge_orig_ref() [1]

Root cause is unknown, but we can avoid spending too much
time there and perhaps get more interesting reports.

[1]

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 27s! [kworker/u4:6:621]
Modules linked in:
irq event stamp: 6182794
hardirqs last enabled at (6182793): [] __local_bh_enable_ip+0x224/0x44c kernel/softirq.c:386
hardirqs last disabled at (6182794): [] __el1_irq arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:533 [inline]
hardirqs last disabled at (6182794): [] el1_interrupt+0x24/0x68 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:551
softirqs last enabled at (6182792): [] spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:396 [inline]
softirqs last enabled at (6182792): [] batadv_purge_orig_ref+0x114c/0x1228 net/batman-adv/originator.c:1287
softirqs last disabled at (6182790): [] spin_lock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:356 [inline]
softirqs last disabled at (6182790): [] batadv_purge_orig_ref+0x164/0x1228 net/batman-adv/originator.c:1271
CPU: 0 PID: 621 Comm: kworker/u4:6 Not tainted 6.8.0-rc7-syzkaller-g707081b61156 #0
Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/29/2024
Workqueue: bat_events batadv_purge_orig
pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--)
pc : should_resched arch/arm64/include/asm/preempt.h:79 [inline]
pc : __local_bh…

Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD OSV

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2024-40981 has been found in Kernel.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade Kernel to 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Kernel CVE-2024-40981" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2024-40981 (Kernel)
Patched: 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (unclassified) exists in Kernel.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Kernel.

🔥 Severity

Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.

🔧 How to fix

Update to 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Kernel' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Kernel' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Kernel を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Apply patch patch
```
Upgrade Kernel to 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7
```
ステージング環境で 4.19.317, 5.4.279, 5.10.221, 5.15.162, 6.1.96, 6.6.36, 6.9.7 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
3
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Linux Kernel

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"2.6.39"},{"fixed":"4.19.317"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.20.0"},{"fixed":"5.4.279"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.5.0"},{"fixed":"5.10.221"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.11.0"},{"fixed":"5.15.162"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"5.16.0"},{"fixed":"6.1.96"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.2.0"},{"fixed":"6.6.36"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.9.7"}]}]

Fix status by distribution

Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE

Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2024-40981 linux Fixed in: 5.10.221-1
Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2024-40981 linux