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CVE-2024-49960: ext4: fix timer use-after-free on failed mount

Description

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

ext4: fix timer use-after-free on failed mount

Syzbot has found an ODEBUG bug in ext4_fill_super

The del_timer_sync function cancels the s_err_report timer,
which reminds about filesystem errors daily. We should
guarantee the timer is no longer active before kfree(sbi).

When filesystem mounting fails, the flow goes to failed_mount3,
where an error occurs when ext4_stop_mmpd is called, causing
a read I/O failure. This triggers the ext4_handle_error function
that ultimately re-arms the timer,
leaving the s_err_report timer active before kfree(sbi) is called.

Fix the issue by canceling the s_err_report timer after calling ext4_stop_mmpd.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2024-49960

Affected Products

Vendor: Linux

Product: Linux

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.03% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 6.63% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-05-31 (when was this score calculated)

Stakeholder-Specific Vulnerability Categorization (SSVC)

SSVC Exploitation: none

SSVC Technical Impact: partial

SSVC Automatable: false

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-49960
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7aac0c17a8cdf4a3236991c1e60435c6a984076c
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/22e9b83f0f33bc5a7a3181769d1dccbf021f5b04
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/cf3196e5e2f36cd80dab91ffae402e13935724bc
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9203817ba46ebba7c865c8de2aba399537b6e891
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fa78fb51d396f4f2f80f8e96a3b1516f394258be
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b85569585d0154d4db1e4f9e3e6a4731d407feb0
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0ce160c5bdb67081a62293028dc85758a8efb22a

Timeline