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CWE-364

Signal Handler Race Condition

BaseIncompleteSimple20 CVEs
The product uses a signal handler that introduces a race condition.

Extended description

Race conditions frequently occur in signal handlers, since signal handlers support asynchronous actions. These race conditions have a variety of root causes and symptoms. Attackers may be able to exploit a signal handler race condition to cause the product state to be corrupted, possibly leading to a denial of service or even code execution. These issues occur when non-reentrant functions, or state-sensitive actions occur in the signal handler, where they may be called at any time. These behaviors can violate assumptions being made by the "regular" code that is interrupted, or by other signal handlers that may also be invoked. If these functions are called at an inopportune moment - such as while a non-reentrant function is already running - memory corruption could occur that may be exploitable for code execution. Another signal race condition commonly found occurs when free is called within a signal handler, resulting in a double free and therefore a write-what-where condition. Even if a given pointer is set to NULL after it has been freed, a race condition still exists between the time the memory was freed and the pointer was set to NULL. This is especially problematic if the same signal handler has been set for more than one signal -- since it means that the signal handler itself may be reentered. There are several known behaviors related to signal handlers that have received the label of "signal handler race condition": Shared state (e.g. global data or static variables) that are accessible to both a signal handler and "regular" code Shared state between a signal handler and other signal handlers Use of non-reentrant functionality within a signal handler - which generally implies that shared state is being used. For example, malloc() and free() are non-reentrant because they may use global or static data structures for managing memory, and they are indirectly used by innocent-seeming functions such as syslog(); these functions could be exploited for memory corruption and, possibly, code execution. Association of the same signal handler function with multiple signals - which might imply shared state, since the same code and resources are accessed. For example, this can be a source of double-free and use-after-free weaknesses. Use of setjmp and longjmp, or other mechanisms that prevent a signal handler from returning control back to the original functionality While not technically a race condition, some signal handlers are designed to be called at most once, and being called more than once can introduce security problems, even when there are not any concurrent calls to the signal handler. This can be a source of double-free and use-after-free weaknesses. Signal handler vulnerabilities are often classified based on the absence of a specific protection mechanism, although this style of classification is discouraged in CWE because programmers often have a choice of several different mechanisms for addressing the weakness. Such protection mechanisms may preserve exclusivity of access to the shared resource, and behavioral atomicity for the relevant code: Avoiding shared state Using synchronization in the signal handler Using synchronization in the regular code Disabling or masking other signals, which provides atomicity (which effectively ensures exclusivity)

Common consequences2

  • IntegrityConfidentialityAvailabilityModify Application DataModify MemoryDoS: Crash, Exit, or RestartExecute Unauthorized Code or Commands

    It may be possible to cause data corruption and possibly execute arbitrary code by modifying global variables or data structures at unexpected times, violating the assumptions of code that uses this global data.

  • Access ControlGain Privileges or Assume Identity

    If a signal handler interrupts code that is executing with privileges, it may be possible that the signal handler will also be executed with elevated privileges, possibly making subsequent exploits more severe.

Potential mitigations3

  1. Requirements

    Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

  2. Architecture and Design

    Design signal handlers to only set flags, rather than perform complex functionality. These flags can then be checked and acted upon within the main program loop.

  3. Implementation

    Only use reentrant functions within signal handlers. Also, use validation to ensure that state is consistent while performing asynchronous actions that affect the state of execution.

Relationships4

CVEs referencing this CWE20

CVEDescriptionSeverityEPSSFlagsModified
CVE-2024-6387

A security regression (CVE-2006-5051) was discovered in OpenSSH's server (sshd). There is a race condition which can lead sshd to handle some signals in an unsafe manner. An unauthenticated, remote attacker may be able to trigger it by failing to authenticate within a set time period.

HIGH8.1
100%p100
PoC
2026-07-14
CVE-2024-6409

A race condition vulnerability was discovered in how signals are handled by OpenSSH's server (sshd). If a remote attacker does not authenticate within a set time period, then sshd's SIGALRM handler is called asynchronously. However, this signal handler calls various functions that are not async-signal-safe, for example, syslog(). As a consequence of a successful attack, in the worst case scenario, an attacker may be able to perform a remote code execution (RCE) as an unprivileged user running the sshd server.

HIGH7.0
28%p98
2026-06-17
CVE-2024-7589

A signal handler in sshd(8) may call a logging function that is not async-signal-safe. The signal handler is invoked when a client does not authenticate within the LoginGraceTime seconds (120 by default). This signal handler executes in the context of the sshd(8)'s privileged code, which is not sandboxed and runs with full root privileges. This issue is another instance of the problem in CVE-2024-6387 addressed by FreeBSD-SA-24:04.openssh. The faulty code in this case is from the integration of blacklistd in OpenSSH in FreeBSD. As a result of calling functions that are not async-signal-safe in the privileged sshd(8) context, a race condition exists that a determined attacker may be able to exploit to allow an unauthenticated remote code execution as root.

HIGH8.1
2.04%p79
2026-06-17
CVE-1999-0035

Race condition in signal handling routine in ftpd, allowing read/write arbitrary files.

MEDIUM5.4
0.82%p53
2026-06-16
CVE-2025-4598

A vulnerability was found in systemd-coredump. This flaw allows an attacker to force a SUID process to crash and replace it with a non-SUID binary to access the original's privileged process coredump, allowing the attacker to read sensitive data, such as /etc/shadow content, loaded by the original process. A SUID binary or process has a special type of permission, which allows the process to run with the file owner's permissions, regardless of the user executing the binary. This allows the process to access more restricted data than unprivileged users or processes would be able to. An attacker can leverage this flaw by forcing a SUID process to crash and force the Linux kernel to recycle the process PID before systemd-coredump can analyze the /proc/pid/auxv file. If the attacker wins the race condition, they gain access to the original's SUID process coredump file. They can read sensitive content loaded into memory by the original binary, affecting data confidentiality.

MEDIUM4.7
0.72%p50
2026-07-14
CVE-2023-1285

Signal Handler Race Condition vulnerability in Mitsubishi Electric India GC-ENET-COM whose first 2 digits of 11-digit serial number of unit are "16" allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition in Ethernet communication by sending a large number of specially crafted packets to any UDP port when GC-ENET-COM is configured as a Modbus TCP Server. The communication resumes only when the power of the main unit is turned off and on or when the GC-ENET-COM is hot-swapped from the main unit.

MEDIUM5.9
0.69%p49
2026-06-17
CVE-2026-24792

in OpenHarmony v6.0 and prior versions allow a remote attacker arbitrary code execution in pre-installed apps.

HIGH8.1
0.43%p35
2026-07-24
CVE-2023-5676

In Eclipse OpenJ9 before version 0.41.0, the JVM can be forced into an infinite busy hang on a spinlock or a segmentation fault if a shutdown signal (SIGTERM, SIGINT or SIGHUP) is received before the JVM has finished initializing.

MEDIUM5.9
0.41%p33
2026-06-17
CVE-2026-4684

Race condition, use-after-free in the Graphics: WebRender component. This vulnerability was fixed in Firefox 149, Firefox ESR 115.34, Firefox ESR 140.9, Thunderbird 149, and Thunderbird 140.9.

HIGH7.5
0.35%p28
2026-07-15
CVE-2026-34771

Electron is a framework for writing cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Prior to versions 38.8.6, 39.8.0, 40.7.0, and 41.0.0-beta.8, apps that register an asynchronous session.setPermissionRequestHandler() may be vulnerable to a use-after-free when handling fullscreen, pointer-lock, or keyboard-lock permission requests. If the requesting frame navigates or the window closes while the permission handler is pending, invoking the stored callback dereferences freed memory, which may lead to a crash or memory corruption. Apps that do not set a permission request handler, or whose handler responds synchronously, are not affected. This issue has been patched in versions 38.8.6, 39.8.0, 40.7.0, and 41.0.0-beta.8.

HIGH8.8
0.29%p21
2026-07-24
CVE-2025-53092

Strapi is an open source headless content management system. Strapi versions prior to 5.20.0 contain a CORS misconfiguration vulnerability in default installations. By default, Strapi reflects the value of the Origin header back in the Access-Control-Allow-Origin response header without proper validation or whitelisting. This allows an attacker-controlled site to send credentialed requests to the Strapi backend. An attacker can exploit this by hosting a malicious site on a different origin (e.g., different port) and sending requests with credentials to the Strapi API. The vulnerability is fixed in version 5.20.0. No known workarounds exist.

MEDIUM6.5
0.27%p19
2026-06-17
CVE-2026-42002

Concurrency and locking defects in GSS-TSIG

HIGH7.5
0.26%p18
2026-07-23
CVE-2020-14317

It was found that the issue for security flaw CVE-2019-3805 appeared again in a further version of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform - Continuous Delivery (EAP-CD) introducing regression. An attacker could exploit this by modifying the PID file in /var/run/jboss-eap/ allowing the init.d script to terminate any process as root.

MEDIUM5.5
0.19%p9
2026-06-17
CVE-2019-3805

A flaw was discovered in wildfly versions up to 16.0.0.Final that would allow local users who are able to execute init.d script to terminate arbitrary processes on the system. An attacker could exploit this by modifying the PID file in /var/run/jboss-eap/ allowing the init.d script to terminate any process as root.

MEDIUM4.7
0.19%p9
2026-06-17
CVE-2026-52910

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: bpf: Free reuseport cBPF prog after RCU grace period. Eulgyu Kim reported the splat below with a repro. [0] The repro sets up a UDP reuseport group with a cBPF prog and replaces it with a new one while another thread is sending a UDP packet to the group. The reuseport prog is freed by sk_reuseport_prog_free(). bpf_prog_put() is called for "e"BPF prog to destruct through multiple stages while cBPF prog is freed immediately by bpf_release_orig_filter() and bpf_prog_free(). If a reuseport prog is detached from the setsockopt() path (reuseport_attach_prog() or reuseport_detach_prog()), sk_reuseport_prog_free() is called without waiting for RCU readers to complete, resulting in various bugs. Let's defer freeing the reuseport cBPF prog after one RCU grace period. Note "e"BPF prog is safe as is unless the fast path starts to touch fields destroyed in bpf_prog_put_deferred() and __bpf_prog_put_noref(). [0]: BUG: KASAN: vmalloc-out-of-bounds in reuseport_select_sock+0xedc/0x1220 net/core/sock_reuseport.c:596 Read of size 4 at addr ffffc9000051e004 by task slowme/10208 CPU: 6 UID: 1000 PID: 10208 Comm: slowme Not tainted 7.0.0-geb7ac95ff75e #32 PREEMPT(full) Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <IRQ> dump_stack_lvl+0xe8/0x150 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0xca/0x240 mm/kasan/report.c:482 kasan_report+0x118/0x150 mm/kasan/report.c:595 reuseport_select_sock+0xedc/0x1220 net/core/sock_reuseport.c:596 udp4_lib_lookup2+0x3bc/0x950 net/ipv4/udp.c:495 __udp4_lib_lookup+0x768/0xe20 net/ipv4/udp.c:723 __udp4_lib_lookup_skb+0x297/0x390 net/ipv4/udp.c:752 __udp4_lib_rcv+0x1312/0x2620 net/ipv4/udp.c:2752 ip_protocol_deliver_rcu+0x282/0x440 net/ipv4/ip_input.c:207 ip_local_deliver_finish+0x3bb/0x6f0 net/ipv4/ip_input.c:241 NF_HOOK+0x30c/0x3a0 include/linux/netfilter.h:318 NF_HOOK+0x30c/0x3a0 include/linux/netfilter.h:318 __netif_receive_skb_one_core net/core/dev.c:6181 [inline] __netif_receive_skb net/core/dev.c:6294 [inline] process_backlog+0xaa4/0x1960 net/core/dev.c:6645 __napi_poll+0xae/0x340 net/core/dev.c:7709 napi_poll net/core/dev.c:7772 [inline] net_rx_action+0x5d7/0xf50 net/core/dev.c:7929 handle_softirqs+0x22b/0x870 kernel/softirq.c:622 do_softirq+0x76/0xd0 kernel/softirq.c:523 </IRQ> <TASK> __local_bh_enable_ip+0xf8/0x130 kernel/softirq.c:450 local_bh_enable include/linux/bottom_half.h:33 [inline] rcu_read_unlock_bh include/linux/rcupdate.h:924 [inline] __dev_queue_xmit+0x1dd7/0x3710 net/core/dev.c:4890 neigh_output include/net/neighbour.h:556 [inline] ip_finish_output2+0xca9/0x1070 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:237 NF_HOOK_COND include/linux/netfilter.h:307 [inline] ip_output+0x29f/0x450 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:438 ip_send_skb+0x45/0xc0 net/ipv4/ip_output.c:1508 udp_send_skb+0xb04/0x1510 net/ipv4/udp.c:1195 udp_sendmsg+0x1a71/0x2350 net/ipv4/udp.c:1485 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:727 [inline] __sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:742 [inline] __sys_sendto+0x554/0x680 net/socket.c:2206 __do_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2213 [inline] __se_sys_sendto net/socket.c:2209 [inline] __x64_sys_sendto+0xde/0x100 net/socket.c:2209 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x160/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x415a2d Code: b3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 90 f3 0f 1e fa 48 89 f8 48 89 f7 48 89 d6 48 89 ca 4d 89 c2 4d 89 c8 4c 8b 4c 24 08 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 RSP: 002b:00007f6bc31e41e8 EFLAGS: 00000212 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000002c RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f6bc31e4cdc RCX: 0000000000415a2d RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 00007f6bc31e421f RDI: 0000000000000003 RBP: 00007f6bc31e4240 R08: 00007f6bc31e4220 R09: 0000000000000010 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ---truncated---

HIGH7.8
0.17%p6
PoC
2026-07-15
CVE-2026-53185

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: zram: fix use-after-free in zram_bvec_write_partial() zram_read_page() picks the sync or async backing device read path based on whether the parent bio is NULL. zram_bvec_write_partial() passes its parent bio down, so for ZRAM_WB slots the read is dispatched asynchronously and zram_read_page() returns 0 while the bio is still in flight. The caller then runs memcpy_from_bvec(), zram_write_page() and __free_page() on the buffer, leaving the async read to write into a freed page. zram_bvec_read_partial() was switched to NULL in commit 4e3c87b9421d ("zram: fix synchronous reads") for the same reason; the write_partial counterpart was missed.

HIGH7.8
0.10%p1
2026-07-15
CVE-2026-46090

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ALSA: aloop: Fix peer runtime UAF during format-change stop loopback_check_format() may stop the capture side when playback starts with parameters that no longer match a running capture stream. Commit 826af7fa62e3 ("ALSA: aloop: Fix racy access at PCM trigger") moved the peer lookup under cable->lock, but the actual snd_pcm_stop() still runs after dropping that lock. A concurrent close can clear the capture entry from cable->streams[] and detach or free its runtime while the playback trigger path still holds a stale peer substream pointer. Keep a per-cable count of in-flight peer stops before dropping cable->lock, and make free_cable() wait for those stops before detaching the runtime. This preserves the existing behavior while making the peer runtime lifetime explicit.

HIGH7.8
0.10%p1
2026-07-20
CVE-2026-27766

in OpenHarmony v6.0 and prior versions allow a local attacker cause information leak.

MEDIUM5.5
0.10%p1
2026-07-24
CVE-2026-31474

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: can: isotp: fix tx.buf use-after-free in isotp_sendmsg() isotp_sendmsg() uses only cmpxchg() on so->tx.state to serialize access to so->tx.buf. isotp_release() waits for ISOTP_IDLE via wait_event_interruptible() and then calls kfree(so->tx.buf). If a signal interrupts the wait_event_interruptible() inside close() while tx.state is ISOTP_SENDING, the loop exits early and release proceeds to force ISOTP_SHUTDOWN and continues to kfree(so->tx.buf) while sendmsg may still be reading so->tx.buf for the final CAN frame in isotp_fill_dataframe(). The so->tx.buf can be allocated once when the standard tx.buf length needs to be extended. Move the kfree() of this potentially extended tx.buf to sk_destruct time when either isotp_sendmsg() and isotp_release() are done.

HIGH7.8
0.10%p1
2026-07-15
CVE-2026-33565

in OpenHarmony v6.0 and prior versions allow a local attacker cause DOS.

LOW3.3
0.09%p1
2026-07-24