USB controller crash via stale transfer descriptors
Published Jul 12, 2024 · Updated May 11, 2026
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel xHCI driver allows local users to crash the USB host controller through UAS device read errors. Cancelled transfer descriptors from additional streams remain cached after their DMA pages are unmapped because cleanup processes only the first active stream. Exploitation requires a stream-capable USB storage path and induced I/O errors; affected systems can suffer xHC failure, IOMMU faults, or freed-memory corruption.
Summary
What happened
Use-after-free in the Linux kernel xHCI driver allows local users to crash the USB host controller through UAS device read errors. Cancelled transfer descriptors from additional streams remain cached after their DMA pages are unmapped because cleanup processes only the first active stream. Exploitation requires a stream-capable USB storage path and induced I/O errors; affected systems can suffer xHC failure, IOMMU faults, or freed-memory corruption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-40927
- Published
- Jul 12, 2024
- Updated
- May 11, 2026
- Vendor
- The Linux Kernel Organization
- Product
- Linux
- Classifications
- CWE-416, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 12, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 11, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=2.6.35
- Affected versionversion=e9df17eb1408cfafa3d1844bfc7f22c7237b31b8 <26460c1afa311524f588e288a4941432f0de6228
- Affected versionversion=e9df17eb1408cfafa3d1844bfc7f22c7237b31b8 <5ceac4402f5d975e5a01c806438eb4e554771577
- Affected versionversion=e9df17eb1408cfafa3d1844bfc7f22c7237b31b8 <61593dc413c3655e4328a351555235bc3089486a
- Affected versionversion=e9df17eb1408cfafa3d1844bfc7f22c7237b31b8 <633f72cb6124ecda97b641fbc119340bd88d51a9
- Affected versionversion=e9df17eb1408cfafa3d1844bfc7f22c7237b31b8 <949be4ec5835e0ccb3e2a8ab0e46179cb5512518
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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