Use After Free in Linux

CVE-2024-35955

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: kprobes: Fix possible use-after-free issue on kprobe registration When unloading a module, its state is changing MODULE_STATE_LIVE -> MODULE_STATE_GOING -> MODULE_STATE_UNFORMED. Each change will take a time. `is_module_text_address()` and `__module_text_address()` works with MODULE_STATE_LIVE and MODULE_STATE_GOING. If we use `is_module_text_address()` and `__module_text_address()` separately, there is a chance that the first one is succeeded but the next one is failed because module->state becomes MODULE_STATE_UNFORMED between those operations. In `check_kprobe_address_safe()`, if the second `__module_text_address()` is failed, that is ignored because it expected a kernel_text address. But it may have failed simply because module->state has been changed to MODULE_STATE_UNFORMED. In this case, arm_kprobe() will try to modify non-exist module text address (use-after-free). To fix this problem, we should not use separated `is_module_text_address()` and `__module_text_address()`, but use only `__module_text_address()` once and do `try_module_get(module)` which is only available with MODULE_STATE_LIVE.

Vulnerability class: Use-After-Free

Published 2024-05-20 · last modified 2026-06-17.