VulnerabilityPublished 20 May 2024Updated 28 Oct 2026

CVE-2024-36009: Linux kernel · ax25: Fix netdev refcount issue

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High · fixed in 6.8.0-1013.14~22.04.1 : patch Linux kernel soon.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026, 10:59 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.8High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Patch: Available – fixed in 6.8.0-1013.14~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1012.14~22.04.1, 6.8.0-1012.13~22.04.1 +18

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 20 May 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade to a fixed release listed under Affected software.

Patches and advisories

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-40.40	Fixed in 6.8.0-40.40
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1013.14	Fixed in 6.8.0-1013.14
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1012.14	Fixed in 6.8.0-1012.14
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gcp`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gcp?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1012.13	Fixed in 6.8.0-1012.13
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gke`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gke?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1008.11	Fixed in 6.8.0-1008.11
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-ibm`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-ibm?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1010.10	Fixed in 6.8.0-1010.10

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ax25: Fix netdev refcount issue The dev_tracker is added to ax25_cb in ax25_bind(). When the ax25 device is detaching, the dev_tracker of ax25_cb should be deallocated in ax25_kill_by_device() instead of the dev_tracker of ax25_dev. The log reported by ref_tracker is shown below: [ 80.884935] ref_tracker: reference already released. [ 80.885150] ref_tracker: allocated in: [ 80.885349] ax25_dev_device_up+0x105/0x540 [ 80.885730] ax25_device_event+0xa4/0x420 [ 80.885730] notifier_call_chain+0xc9/0x1e0 [ 80.885730] __dev_notify_flags+0x138/0x280 [ 80.885730] dev_change_flags+0xd7/0x180 [ 80.885730] dev_ifsioc+0x6a9/0xa30 [ 80.885730] dev_ioctl+0x4d8/0xd90 [ 80.885730] sock_do_ioctl+0x1c2/0x2d0 [ 80.885730] sock_ioctl+0x38b/0x4f0 [ 80.885730] __se_sys_ioctl+0xad/0xf0 [ 80.885730] do_syscall_64+0xc4/0x1b0 [ 80.885730] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f [ 80.885730] ref_tracker: freed in: [ 80.885730] ax25_device_event+0x272/0x420 [ 80.885730] notifier_call_chain+0xc9/0x1e0 [ 80.885730] dev_close_many+0x272/0x370 [ 80.885730] unregister_netdevice_many_notify+0x3b5/0x1180 [ 80.885730] unregister_netdev+0xcf/0x120 [ 80.885730] sixpack_close+0x11f/0x1b0 [ 80.885730] tty_ldisc_kill+0xcb/0x190 [ 80.885730] tty_ldisc_hangup+0x338/0x3d0 [ 80.885730] __tty_hangup+0x504/0x740 [ 80.885730] tty_release+0x46e/0xd80 [ 80.885730] __fput+0x37f/0x770 [ 80.885730] __x64_sys_close+0x7b/0xb0 [ 80.885730] do_syscall_64+0xc4/0x1b0 [ 80.885730] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f [ 80.893739] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 80.894030] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 140 at lib/ref_tracker.c:255 ref_tracker_free+0x47b/0x6b0 [ 80.894297] Modules linked in: [ 80.894929] CPU: 2 PID: 140 Comm: ax25_conn_rel_6 Not tainted 6.9.0-rc4-g8cd26fd90c1a #11 [ 80.895190] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qem4 [ 80.895514] RIP: 0010:ref_tracker_free+0x47b/0x6b0 [ 80.895808] Code: 83 c5 18 4c 89 eb 48 c1 eb 03 8a 04 13 84 c0 0f 85 df 01 00 00 41 83 7d 00 00 75 4b 4c 89 ff 9 [ 80.896171] RSP: 0018:ffff888009edf8c0 EFLAGS: 00000286 [ 80.896339] RAX: 1ffff1100141ac00 RBX: 1ffff1100149463b RCX: dffffc0000000000 [ 80.896502] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000246 RDI: ffff88800a0d6518 [ 80.896925] RBP: ffff888009edf9b0 R08: ffff88806d3288d3 R09: 1ffff1100da6511a [ 80.897212] R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: ffffed100da6511b R12: ffff88800a4a31d4 [ 80.897859] R13: ffff88800a4a31d8 R14: dffffc0000000000 R15: ffff88800a0d6518 [ 80.898279] FS: 00007fd88b7fe700(0000) GS:ffff88806d300000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 80.899436] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 80.900181] CR2: 00007fd88c001d48 CR3: 000000000993e000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 ... [ 80.935774] ref_tracker: sp%d@000000000bb9df3d has 1/1 users at [ 80.935774] ax25_bind+0x424/0x4e0 [ 80.935774] __sys_bind+0x1d9/0x270 [ 80.935774] __x64_sys_bind+0x75/0x80 [ 80.935774] do_syscall_64+0xc4/0x1b0 [ 80.935774] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x67/0x6f Change ax25_dev->dev_tracker to the dev_tracker of ax25_cb in order to mitigate the bug.

GCVE source: db.gcve.eu
OSV ID: UBUNTU-CVE-2024-36009
Osv Schema Version: 1.7.0
Ecosystems: Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-preview:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:22.04:LTS, Ubuntu:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:Realtime:24.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:24.04:LTS
CVSS version: 3.1

References

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