CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-10690 — Linux Linux Kernel security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 6.5

There is a use-after-free in kernel versions before 5.5 due to a race condition between the release of ptp_clock and cdev while resource deallocation. When a (high privileged) process allocates a ptp device file (like /dev/ptpX) and voluntarily goes to sleep. During this time if the underlying device is removed, it can cause an exploitable condition as the process wakes up to terminate and clean all attached files. The system crashes due to the cdev structure being invalid (as already freed) which is pointed to by the inode.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2020-05-08
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-416

Affected products

  • linux / linux_kernel
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 7.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux / 8.0
  • debian / debian_linux / 8.0
  • canonical / ubuntu_linux / 14.04
  • canonical / ubuntu_linux / 16.04

Showing 6 representative product identities from 24 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Use-after-free, double free, and expired resource use

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace ownership, references, callbacks, asynchronous tasks, and teardown paths around the affected object or resource.
  • Identify reachable inputs and timing or state transitions that can release the object while references remain.
  • Confirm affected builds, allocators, feature flags, architectures, and process privileges.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained ownership or lifetime fix and rebuild all artifacts containing the affected native code.
  • Use explicit ownership, safe reference management, cancellation and join semantics, and idempotent teardown.
  • Add deterministic lifetime tests plus isolated sanitizer and concurrency coverage for shutdown and error paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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