Linux Kernel up to 6.6.63/6.11.10/6.12.1 smb open_cached_dir use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.63/6.11.10/6.12.1. Affected is the function open_cached_dir of the component smb. The manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2024-53177. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.63/6.11.10/6.12.1 and classified as critical. This issue affects the function open_cached_dir of the component smb. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: smb: prevent use-after-free due to open_cached_dir error paths If open_cached_dir() encounters an error parsing the lease from the server, the error handling may race with receiving a lease break, resulting in open_cached_dir() freeing the cfid while the queued work is pending. Update open_cached_dir() to drop refs rather than directly freeing the cfid. Have cached_dir_lease_break(), cfids_laundromat_worker(), and invalidate_all_cached_dirs() clear has_lease immediately while still holding cfids->cfid_list_lock, and then use this to also simplify the reference counting in cfids_laundromat_worker() and invalidate_all_cached_dirs(). Fixes this KASAN splat (which manually injects an error and lease break in open_cached_dir()): ================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in smb2_cached_lease_break+0x27/0xb0 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88811cc24c10 by task kworker/3:1/65 CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 65 Comm: kworker/3:1 Not tainted 6.12.0-rc6-g255cf264e6e5-dirty #87 Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020 Workqueue: cifsiod smb2_cached_lease_break Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x77/0xb0 print_report+0xce/0x660 kasan_report+0xd3/0x110 smb2_cached_lease_break+0x27/0xb0 process_one_work+0x50a/0xc50 worker_thread+0x2ba/0x530 kthread+0x17c/0x1c0 ret_from_fork+0x34/0x60 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 Allocated by task 2464: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 __kasan_kmalloc+0xaa/0xb0 open_cached_dir+0xa7d/0x1fb0 smb2_query_path_info+0x43c/0x6e0 cifs_get_fattr+0x346/0xf10 cifs_get_inode_info+0x157/0x210 cifs_revalidate_dentry_attr+0x2d1/0x460 cifs_getattr+0x173/0x470 vfs_statx_path+0x10f/0x160 vfs_statx+0xe9/0x150 vfs_fstatat+0x5e/0xc0 __do_sys_newfstatat+0x91/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x1a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Freed by task 2464: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30 kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x60 __kasan_slab_free+0x51/0x70 kfree+0x174/0x520 open_cached_dir+0x97f/0x1fb0 smb2_query_path_info+0x43c/0x6e0 cifs_get_fattr+0x346/0xf10 cifs_get_inode_info+0x157/0x210 cifs_revalidate_dentry_attr+0x2d1/0x460 cifs_getattr+0x173/0x470 vfs_statx_path+0x10f/0x160 vfs_statx+0xe9/0x150 vfs_fstatat+0x5e/0xc0 __do_sys_newfstatat+0x91/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x1a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e Last potentially related work creation: kasan_save_stack+0x33/0x60 __kasan_record_aux_stack+0xad/0xc0 insert_work+0x32/0x100 __queue_work+0x5c9/0x870 queue_work_on+0x82/0x90 open_cached_dir+0x1369/0x1fb0 smb2_query_path_info+0x43c/0x6e0 cifs_get_fattr+0x346/0xf10 cifs_get_inode_info+0x157/0x210 cifs_revalidate_dentry_attr+0x2d1/0x460 cifs_getattr+0x173/0x470 vfs_statx_path+0x10f/0x160 vfs_statx+0xe9/0x150 vfs_fstatat+0x5e/0xc0 __do_sys_newfstatat+0x91/0xf0 do_syscall_64+0x95/0x1a0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88811cc24c00 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 The buggy address is located 16 bytes inside of freed 1024-byte region [ffff88811cc24c00, ffff88811cc25000)

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2024-53177 since 11/19/2024. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/21/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216460 (SUSE SLES15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:0577-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.6.64, 6.11.11 or 6.12.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 791f833053578b9fd24252ebb7162a61bc3f805b/97e2afcac0bebfef6a5360f4267ce4c44507b845/47655a12c6b1bca8fa230085eab2e85a076932b7/a9685b409a03b73d2980bbfa53eb47555802d0a9 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (216460) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-1439). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• SUSE Linux
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.11.0
• 6.11.1
• 6.11.2
• 6.11.3
• 6.11.4
• 6.11.5
• 6.11.6
• 6.11.7
• 6.11.8
• 6.11.9
• 6.11.10
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

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Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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