VulnerabilityPublished 17 Aug 2024Updated 4 Nov 2025

CVE-2024-43855: Linux kernel · md: fix deadlock between mddev_suspend and flush bio

Source GCVE Database

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.5 Medium.

Data as of 29 Oct 2026, 22:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.5Medium

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

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 17 Aug 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), 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.

ghsa-5ffp-85mp-h2q2

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: md: fix deadlock between mddev_suspend and flush bio Deadlock occurs when mddev is being suspended while some flush bio is in progress. It is a complex issue. T1. the first flush is at the ending stage, it clears 'mddev->flush_bio' and tries to submit data, but is blocked because mddev is suspended by T4. T2. the second flush sets 'mddev->flush_bio', and attempts to queue md_submit_flush_data(), which is already running (T1) and won't execute again if on the same CPU as T1. T3. the third flush inc active_io and tries to flush, but is blocked because 'mddev->flush_bio' is not NULL (set by T2). T4. mddev_suspend() is called and waits for active_io dec to 0 which is inc by T3. T1 T2 T3 T4 (flush 1) (flush 2) (third 3) (suspend) md_submit_flush_data mddev->flush_bio = NULL; . . md_flush_request . mddev->flush_bio = bio . queue submit_flushes . . . . md_handle_request . . active_io + 1 . . md_flush_request . . wait !mddev->flush_bio . . . . mddev_suspend . . wait !active_io . . . submit_flushes . queue_work md_submit_flush_data . //md_submit_flush_data is already running (T1) . md_handle_request wait resume The root issue is non-atomic inc/dec of active_io during flush process. active_io is dec before md_submit_flush_data is queued, and inc soon after md_submit_flush_data() run. md_flush_request active_io + 1 submit_flushes active_io - 1 md_submit_flush_data md_handle_request active_io + 1 make_request active_io - 1 If active_io is dec after md_handle_request() instead of within submit_flushes(), make_request() can be called directly intead of md_handle_request() in md_submit_flush_data(), and active_io will only inc and dec once in the whole flush process. Deadlock will be fixed. Additionally, the only difference between fixing the issue and before is that there is no return error handling of make_request(). But after previous patch cleaned md_write_start(), make_requst() only return error in raid5_make_request() by dm-raid, see commit 41425f96d7aa ("dm-raid456, md/raid456: fix a deadlock for dm-raid456 while io concurrent with reshape)". Since dm always splits data and flush operation into two separate io, io size of flush submitted by dm always is 0, make_request() will not be called in md_submit_flush_data(). To prevent future modifications from introducing issues, add WARN_ON to ensure make_request() no error is returned in this context.

CWE-476NULL Pointer Dereference (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumCWE Top 25 (2025): #13OWASP Top 10 A10:2025: Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions (opens in a new tab)
The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.
Implementation
For any pointers that could have been modified or provided from a function that can return NULL, check the pointer for NULL before use. When working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the check, and unlock when it has finished.
Requirements
Select a programming language that is not susceptible to these issues.
Implementation
Check the results of all functions that return a value and verify that the value is non-null before acting upon it.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Logging (opens in a new tab)
Error Handling (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V11.1.7 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

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Exploitation evidence

Description

WeaknessesCWE-476

Technical details

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