CVE-2024-57974: udp: Deal with race between UDP socket address change and rehash
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
udp: Deal with race between UDP socket address change and rehash
If a UDP socket changes its local address while it's receiving
datagrams, as a result of connect(), there is a period during which
a lookup operation might fail to find it, after the address is changed
but before the secondary hash (port and address) and the four-tuple
hash (local and remote ports and addresses) are updated.
Secondary hash chains were introduced by commit 30fff9231fad ("udp:
bind() optimisation") and, as a result, a rehash operation became
needed to make a bound socket reachable again after a connect().
This operation was introduced by commit 719f835853a9 ("udp: add
rehash on connect()") which isn't however a complete fix: the
socket will be found once the rehashing completes, but not while
it's pending.
This is noticeable with a socat(1) server in UDP4-LISTEN mode, and a
client sending datagrams to it. After the server receives the first
datagram (cf. _xioopen_ipdgram_listen()), it issues a connect() to
the address of the sender, in order to set up a directed flow.
Now, if the client, running on a different CPU thread, happens to
send a (subsequent) datagram while the server's socket changes its
address, but is not rehashed yet, this will result in a failed
lookup and a port unreachable error delivered to the client, as
apparent from the following reproducer:
LEN=$(($(cat /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default) / 4))
dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1 count=${LEN} of=tmp.in
while :; do
taskset -c 1 socat UDP4-LISTEN:1337,null-eof OPEN:tmp.out,create,trunc &
sleep 0.1 || sleep 1
taskset -c 2 socat OPEN:tmp.in UDP4:localhost:1337,shut-null
wait
done
where the client will eventually get ECONNREFUSED on a write()
(typically the second or third one of a given iteration):
2024/11/13 21:28:23 socat[46901] E write(6, 0x556db2e3c000, 8192): Connection refused
This issue was first observed as a seldom failure in Podman's tests
checking UDP functionality while using pasta(1) to connect the
container's network namespace, which leads us to a reproducer with
the lookup error resulting in an ICMP packet on a tap device:
LOCAL_ADDR="$(ip -j -4 addr show|jq -rM '.[] | .addr_info[0] | select(.scope == "global").local')"
while :; do
./pasta --config-net -p pasta.pcap -u 1337 socat UDP4-LISTEN:1337,null-eof OPEN:tmp.out,create,trunc &
sleep 0.2 || sleep 1
socat OPEN:tmp.in UDP4:${LOCAL_ADDR}:1337,shut-null
wait
cmp tmp.in tmp.out
done
Once this fails:
tmp.in tmp.out differ: char 8193, line 29
we can finally have a look at what's going on:
$ tshark -r pasta.pcap
1 0.000000 :: ? ff02::16 ICMPv6 110 Multicast Listener Report Message v2
2 0.168690 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
3 0.168767 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
4 0.168806 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
5 0.168827 c6:47:05:8d:dc:04 ? Broadcast ARP 42 Who has 88.198.0.161? Tell 88.198.0.164
6 0.168851 9a:55:9a:55:9a:55 ? c6:47:05:8d:dc:04 ARP 42 88.198.0.161 is at 9a:55:9a:55:9a:55
7 0.168875 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
8 0.168896 88.198.0.164 ? 88.198.0.161 ICMP 590 Destination unreachable (Port unreachable)
9 0.168926 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
10 0.168959 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 8234 60260 ? 1337 Len=8192
11 0.168989 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 4138 60260 ? 1337 Len=4096
12 0.169010 88.198.0.161 ? 88.198.0.164 UDP 42 60260 ? 1337 Len=0
On the third datagram received, the network namespace of the container
initiates an ARP lookup to deliver the ICMP message.
In another variant of this reproducer, starting the client with:
strace -f pasta --config-net -u 1337 socat UDP4-LISTEN:1337,null-eof OPEN:tmp.out,create,tru
---truncated---
Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This Linux kernel flaw can cause UDP traffic to be dropped during a narrow race when a socket changes address while receiving data. The documented impact is failed UDP delivery and connection-refused or port-unreachable behavior, not remote code execution. It matters most for services, containers, or networking tools that depend on reliable UDP flows.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted reliability risk, not an emergency RCE. Patch through normal kernel maintenance, but raise priority for platforms where UDP loss affects customer traffic, container networking, telemetry, DNS-like services, or operational monitoring.
Technical view
The bug is a race between UDP socket local address changes and rehashing of secondary and four-tuple hash tables after connect(). During the window before rehash completes, socket lookup can miss a valid socket, generating ICMP port unreachable and lost datagrams. The source notes reproduction with socat, Podman tests, and pasta networking.
Likely exposure
Linux systems running affected kernel versions are potentially exposed, especially workloads using UDP listeners that call connect() after receiving datagrams. Container networking paths using pasta or similar UDP forwarding may notice failures. The provided version data is incomplete and should be checked against distribution kernel advisories.
Exploitation context
No cited source states active exploitation, and KEV is false. The available evidence describes reliability failures under timing-sensitive UDP traffic, observed in tests and reproductions. The source does not show privilege escalation, code execution, or data disclosure.
Researcher notes
Evidence is strongest for a kernel UDP lookup race causing availability and correctness failures. Severity metadata and CVSS are absent in the bundle. Affected version details appear ambiguous, so validation should rely on vendor kernel trees and stable commit backports rather than raw version strings alone.
Mitigation direction
Apply vendor kernel updates containing the referenced stable fixes.
Check Linux distribution advisories for exact fixed package versions.
Prioritize UDP-heavy hosts, container networking nodes, and network appliances.
Monitor for repeated ICMP port-unreachable events tied to valid UDP services.
Use vendor guidance if backport status is unclear.
Validation and detection
Inventory Linux kernel versions across exposed and container hosts.
Map kernels to distribution advisories for CVE-2024-57974.
Confirm updated kernels include one of the referenced stable commits or vendor backport.
Review UDP service logs for unexpected connection-refused or datagram loss symptoms.
Run regression tests for UDP-dependent applications after patching.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Potential ATT&CK relevance
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
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description · low confidence lookup
Container behavior lookup
The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
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CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
Feb 27, 2025, 02:07 UTC (UTC+00:00)
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