CVE-2021-47118
Severity CVSS v4.0:
Pending analysis
Type:
CWE-416
Use After Free
Publication date:
15/03/2024
Last modified:
27/02/2025
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:<br />
<br />
pid: take a reference when initializing `cad_pid`<br />
<br />
During boot, kernel_init_freeable() initializes `cad_pid` to the init<br />
task&#39;s struct pid. Later on, we may change `cad_pid` via a sysctl, and<br />
when this happens proc_do_cad_pid() will increment the refcount on the<br />
new pid via get_pid(), and will decrement the refcount on the old pid<br />
via put_pid(). As we never called get_pid() when we initialized<br />
`cad_pid`, we decrement a reference we never incremented, can therefore<br />
free the init task&#39;s struct pid early. As there can be dangling<br />
references to the struct pid, we can later encounter a use-after-free<br />
(e.g. when delivering signals).<br />
<br />
This was spotted when fuzzing v5.13-rc3 with Syzkaller, but seems to<br />
have been around since the conversion of `cad_pid` to struct pid in<br />
commit 9ec52099e4b8 ("[PATCH] replace cad_pid by a struct pid") from the<br />
pre-KASAN stone age of v2.6.19.<br />
<br />
Fix this by getting a reference to the init task&#39;s struct pid when we<br />
assign it to `cad_pid`.<br />
<br />
Full KASAN splat below.<br />
<br />
==================================================================<br />
BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in ns_of_pid include/linux/pid.h:153 [inline]<br />
BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in task_active_pid_ns+0xc0/0xc8 kernel/pid.c:509<br />
Read of size 4 at addr ffff23794dda0004 by task syz-executor.0/273<br />
<br />
CPU: 1 PID: 273 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 5.12.0-00001-g9aef892b2d15 #1<br />
Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)<br />
Call trace:<br />
ns_of_pid include/linux/pid.h:153 [inline]<br />
task_active_pid_ns+0xc0/0xc8 kernel/pid.c:509<br />
do_notify_parent+0x308/0xe60 kernel/signal.c:1950<br />
exit_notify kernel/exit.c:682 [inline]<br />
do_exit+0x2334/0x2bd0 kernel/exit.c:845<br />
do_group_exit+0x108/0x2c8 kernel/exit.c:922<br />
get_signal+0x4e4/0x2a88 kernel/signal.c:2781<br />
do_signal arch/arm64/kernel/signal.c:882 [inline]<br />
do_notify_resume+0x300/0x970 arch/arm64/kernel/signal.c:936<br />
work_pending+0xc/0x2dc<br />
<br />
Allocated by task 0:<br />
slab_post_alloc_hook+0x50/0x5c0 mm/slab.h:516<br />
slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:2907 [inline]<br />
slab_alloc mm/slub.c:2915 [inline]<br />
kmem_cache_alloc+0x1f4/0x4c0 mm/slub.c:2920<br />
alloc_pid+0xdc/0xc00 kernel/pid.c:180<br />
copy_process+0x2794/0x5e18 kernel/fork.c:2129<br />
kernel_clone+0x194/0x13c8 kernel/fork.c:2500<br />
kernel_thread+0xd4/0x110 kernel/fork.c:2552<br />
rest_init+0x44/0x4a0 init/main.c:687<br />
arch_call_rest_init+0x1c/0x28<br />
start_kernel+0x520/0x554 init/main.c:1064<br />
0x0<br />
<br />
Freed by task 270:<br />
slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:1562 [inline]<br />
slab_free_freelist_hook+0x98/0x260 mm/slub.c:1600<br />
slab_free mm/slub.c:3161 [inline]<br />
kmem_cache_free+0x224/0x8e0 mm/slub.c:3177<br />
put_pid.part.4+0xe0/0x1a8 kernel/pid.c:114<br />
put_pid+0x30/0x48 kernel/pid.c:109<br />
proc_do_cad_pid+0x190/0x1b0 kernel/sysctl.c:1401<br />
proc_sys_call_handler+0x338/0x4b0 fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c:591<br />
proc_sys_write+0x34/0x48 fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c:617<br />
call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:1977 [inline]<br />
new_sync_write+0x3ac/0x510 fs/read_write.c:518<br />
vfs_write fs/read_write.c:605 [inline]<br />
vfs_write+0x9c4/0x1018 fs/read_write.c:585<br />
ksys_write+0x124/0x240 fs/read_write.c:658<br />
__do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:670 [inline]<br />
__se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:667 [inline]<br />
__arm64_sys_write+0x78/0xb0 fs/read_write.c:667<br />
__invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:37 [inline]<br />
invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 [inline]<br />
el0_svc_common.constprop.1+0x16c/0x388 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:129<br />
do_el0_svc+0xf8/0x150 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:168<br />
el0_svc+0x28/0x38 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:416<br />
el0_sync_handler+0x134/0x180 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:432<br />
el0_sync+0x154/0x180 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:701<br />
<br />
The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff23794dda0000<br />
which belongs to the cache pid of size 224<br />
The buggy address is located 4 bytes inside of<br />
224-byte region [ff<br />
---truncated---
Impact
Base Score 3.x
7.80
Severity 3.x
HIGH
Vulnerable products and versions
| CPE | From | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 2.6.19 (including) | 4.4.272 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.5 (including) | 4.9.272 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.10 (including) | 4.14.236 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.15 (including) | 4.19.194 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 4.20 (including) | 5.4.125 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.5 (including) | 5.10.43 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 5.11 (including) | 5.12.10 (excluding) |
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
| cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.13:rc4:*:*:*:*:*:* |
To consult the complete list of CPE names with products and versions, see this page
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0711f0d7050b9e07c44bc159bbc64ac0a1022c7f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2cd6eedfa6344f5ef5c3dac3aee57a39b5b46dff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4dbd8808a591b49b717862e6e0081bcf14a87788
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7178be006d495ffb741c329012da289b62dddfe6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/764c2e892d1fe895392aff62fb353fdce43bb529
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b8ff869f20152fbe66b6c2e2715d26a2f9897cca
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d106f05432e60f9f62d456ef017687f5c73cb414
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f86c80515a8a3703e0ca2e56deb50fc2879c5ea4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0711f0d7050b9e07c44bc159bbc64ac0a1022c7f
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2cd6eedfa6344f5ef5c3dac3aee57a39b5b46dff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4dbd8808a591b49b717862e6e0081bcf14a87788
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7178be006d495ffb741c329012da289b62dddfe6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/764c2e892d1fe895392aff62fb353fdce43bb529
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b8ff869f20152fbe66b6c2e2715d26a2f9897cca
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d106f05432e60f9f62d456ef017687f5c73cb414
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f86c80515a8a3703e0ca2e56deb50fc2879c5ea4



