VulnerabilityPublished 12 Jul 2024Updated 26 Oct 2026

CVE-2024-40981: Linux kernel · batman-adv: bypass empty buckets in batadv_purge_orig_ref()

Affects Linux kernelSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium · fixed in 4.4.0-1141.147 : update Linux kernel when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 23:28 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

Patch: Available – fixed in 4.4.0-1141.147, 4.15.0-1186.201~14.04.1, 4.4.0-266.300~14.04.1 +93

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
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: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within 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 12 Jul 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 <6.8.0-44.44	Fixed in 6.8.0-44.44
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-aws`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-aws?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1015.16	Fixed in 6.8.0-1015.16
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-azure`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-azure?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1014.16	Fixed in 6.8.0-1014.16
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gcp`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gcp?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1014.16	Fixed in 6.8.0-1014.16
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-gke`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-gke?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1010.13	Fixed in 6.8.0-1010.13
Ubuntu 24.04 LTSlinux-ibm`pkg:deb/ubuntu/linux-ibm?arch=source&distro=noble`Other threats	Affected <6.8.0-1012.12	Fixed in 6.8.0-1012.12

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: 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): [<ffff8000801dae10>] __local_bh_enable_ip+0x224/0x44c kernel/softirq.c:386 hardirqs last disabled at (6182794): [<ffff80008ad66a78>] __el1_irq arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:533 [inline] hardirqs last disabled at (6182794): [<ffff80008ad66a78>] el1_interrupt+0x24/0x68 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:551 softirqs last enabled at (6182792): [<ffff80008aab71c4>] spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:396 [inline] softirqs last enabled at (6182792): [<ffff80008aab71c4>] batadv_purge_orig_ref+0x114c/0x1228 net/batman-adv/originator.c:1287 softirqs last disabled at (6182790): [<ffff80008aab61dc>] spin_lock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:356 [inline] softirqs last disabled at (6182790): [<ffff80008aab61dc>] 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_enable_ip+0x228/0x44c kernel/softirq.c:388 lr : __local_bh_enable_ip+0x224/0x44c kernel/softirq.c:386 sp : ffff800099007970 x29: ffff800099007980 x28: 1fffe00018fce1bd x27: dfff800000000000 x26: ffff0000d2620008 x25: ffff0000c7e70de8 x24: 0000000000000001 x23: 1fffe00018e57781 x22: dfff800000000000 x21: ffff80008aab71c4 x20: ffff0001b40136c0 x19: ffff0000c72bbc08 x18: 1fffe0001a817bb0 x17: ffff800125414000 x16: ffff80008032116c x15: 0000000000000001 x14: 1fffe0001ee9d610 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: 0000000000000003 x11: 0000000000000000 x10: 0000000000ff0100 x9 : 0000000000000000 x8 : 00000000005e5789 x7 : ffff80008aab61dc x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000006 x1 : 0000000000000080 x0 : ffff800125414000 Call trace: __daif_local_irq_enable arch/arm64/include/asm/irqflags.h:27 [inline] arch_local_irq_enable arch/arm64/include/asm/irqflags.h:49 [inline] __local_bh_enable_ip+0x228/0x44c kernel/softirq.c:386 __raw_spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:167 [inline] _raw_spin_unlock_bh+0x3c/0x4c kernel/locking/spinlock.c:210 spin_unlock_bh include/linux/spinlock.h:396 [inline] batadv_purge_orig_ref+0x114c/0x1228 net/batman-adv/originator.c:1287 batadv_purge_orig+0x20/0x70 net/batman-adv/originator.c:1300 process_one_work+0x694/0x1204 kernel/workqueue.c:2633 process_scheduled_works kernel/workqueue.c:2706 [inline] worker_thread+0x938/0xef4 kernel/workqueue.c:2787 kthread+0x288/0x310 kernel/kthread.c:388 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:860 Sending NMI from CPU 0 to CPUs 1: NMI backtrace for cpu 1 CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 6.8.0-rc7-syzkaller-g707081b61156 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 02/29/2024 pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : arch_local_irq_enable+0x8/0xc arch/arm64/include/asm/irqflags.h:51 lr : default_idle_call+0xf8/0x128 kernel/sched/idle.c:103 sp : ffff800093a17d30 x29: ffff800093a17d30 x28: dfff800000000000 x27: 1ffff00012742fb4 x26: ffff80008ec9d000 x25: 0000000000000000 x24: 0000000000000002 x23: 1ffff00011d93a74 x22: ffff80008ec9d3a0 x21: 0000000000000000 x20: ffff0000c19dbc00 x19: ffff8000802d0fd8 x18: 1fffe00036804396 x17: ffff80008ec9d000 x16: ffff8000802d089c x15: 0000000000000001 ---truncated---

GCVE source: db.gcve.eu
OSV ID: UBUNTU-CVE-2024-40981
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:FIPS:16.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS:18.04:LTS, Ubuntu:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS-updates:20.04:LTS, Ubuntu:Pro:FIPS: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

Community reviews

Loading reviews…