CVE-2024-56770 | net/sched: netem: account for backlog updates from child qdisc

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/sched: netem: account for backlog updates from child qdisc In general, 'qlen' of any classful qdisc should keep track of the number of packets that the qdisc itself and all of its children holds. In case of netem, 'qlen' only accounts for the packets in its internal tfifo. When netem is used with a child qdisc, the child qdisc can use 'qdisc_tree_reduce_backlog' to inform its parent, netem, about created or dropped SKBs. This function updates 'qlen' and the backlog statistics of netem, but netem does not account for changes made by a child qdisc. 'qlen' then indicates the wrong number of packets in the tfifo. If a child qdisc creates new SKBs during enqueue and informs its parent about this, netem's 'qlen' value is increased. When netem dequeues the newly created SKBs from the child, the 'qlen' in netem is not updated. If 'qlen' reaches the configured sch->limit, the enqueue function stops working, even though the tfifo is not full. Reproduce the bug: Ensure that the sender machine has GSO enabled. Configure netem as root qdisc and tbf as its child on the outgoing interface of the machine as follows: $ tc qdisc add dev <oif> root handle 1: netem delay 100ms limit 100 $ tc qdisc add dev <oif> parent 1:0 tbf rate 50Mbit burst 1542 latency 50ms Send bulk TCP traffic out via this interface, e.g., by running an iPerf3 client on the machine. Check the qdisc statistics: $ tc -s qdisc show dev <oif> Statistics after 10s of iPerf3 TCP test before the fix (note that netem's backlog > limit, netem stopped accepting packets): qdisc netem 1: root refcnt 2 limit 1000 delay 100ms Sent 2767766 bytes 1848 pkt (dropped 652, overlimits 0 requeues 0) backlog 4294528236b 1155p requeues 0 qdisc tbf 10: parent 1:1 rate 50Mbit burst 1537b lat 50ms Sent 2767766 bytes 1848 pkt (dropped 327, overlimits 7601 requeues 0) backlog 0b 0p requeues 0 Statistics after the fix: qdisc netem 1: root refcnt 2 limit 1000 delay 100ms Sent 37766372 bytes 24974 pkt (dropped 9, overlimits 0 requeues 0) backlog 0b 0p requeues 0 qdisc tbf 10: parent 1:1 rate 50Mbit burst 1537b lat 50ms Sent 37766372 bytes 24974 pkt (dropped 327, overlimits 96017 requeues 0) backlog 0b 0p requeues 0 tbf segments the GSO SKBs (tbf_segment) and updates the netem's 'qlen'. The interface fully stops transferring packets and "locks". In this case, the child qdisc and tfifo are empty, but 'qlen' indicates the tfifo is at its limit and no more packets are accepted. This patch adds a counter for the entries in the tfifo. Netem's 'qlen' is only decreased when a packet is returned by its dequeue function, and not during enqueuing into the child qdisc. External updates to 'qlen' are thus accounted for and only the behavior of the backlog statistics changes. As in other qdiscs, 'qlen' then keeps track of how many packets are held in netem and all of its children. As before, sch->limit remains as the maximum number of packets in the tfifo. The same applies to netem's backlog statistics.

Published: 2025-01-08 Last update: 2025-11-03 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2024-56770 is rated Low Risk (22.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.01%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2024-56770

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-02-16 0.05% 0.01% -0.04%
2 2025-10-25 0.03% 0.05% +0.02%
3 2025-03-30 0.03%

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-56770

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-56770

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-56770

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-56770 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (linux, linux-6.1), 6 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 6. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-56770
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-56770
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-56770/
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-56770 medium priority: Ubuntu including 158 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1551 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1145, released 212, ignored 148, not-affected 45, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-56770

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-56770

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 3.3, < 5.4.288 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.10.232 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.11, < 5.15.175 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.121 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.6.67 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.6 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.13 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-56770

cvelogic Threat Intelligence