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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

High severity Unreviewed Published Mar 2, 2024 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Jan 9, 2025

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ipc/mqueue, msg, sem: avoid relying on a stack reference past its expiry

do_mq_timedreceive calls wq_sleep with a stack local address. The
sender (do_mq_timedsend) uses this address to later call pipelined_send.

This leads to a very hard to trigger race where a do_mq_timedreceive
call might return and leave do_mq_timedsend to rely on an invalid
address, causing the following crash:

RIP: 0010:wake_q_add_safe+0x13/0x60
Call Trace:
__x64_sys_mq_timedsend+0x2a9/0x490
do_syscall_64+0x80/0x680
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9
RIP: 0033:0x7f5928e40343

The race occurs as:

  1. do_mq_timedreceive calls wq_sleep with the address of struct ext_wait_queue on function stack (aliased as ewq_addr here) - it
    holds a valid struct ext_wait_queue * as long as the stack has not
    been overwritten.

  2. ewq_addr gets added to info->e_wait_q[RECV].list in wq_add, and
    do_mq_timedsend receives it via wq_get_first_waiter(info, RECV) to call
    __pipelined_op.

  3. Sender calls __pipelined_op::smp_store_release(&this->state,
    STATE_READY). Here is where the race window begins. (this is
    ewq_addr.)

  4. If the receiver wakes up now in do_mq_timedreceive::wq_sleep, it
    will see state == STATE_READY and break.

  5. do_mq_timedreceive returns, and ewq_addr is no longer guaranteed
    to be a struct ext_wait_queue * since it was on do_mq_timedreceive's
    stack. (Although the address may not get overwritten until another
    function happens to touch it, which means it can persist around for an
    indefinite time.)

  6. do_mq_timedsend::__pipelined_op() still believes ewq_addr is a
    struct ext_wait_queue *, and uses it to find a task_struct to pass to
    the wake_q_add_safe call. In the lucky case where nothing has
    overwritten ewq_addr yet, ewq_addr->task is the right task_struct.
    In the unlucky case, __pipelined_op::wake_q_add_safe gets handed a
    bogus address as the receiver's task_struct causing the crash.

do_mq_timedsend::__pipelined_op() should not dereference this after
setting STATE_READY, as the receiver counterpart is now free to return.
Change __pipelined_op to call wake_q_add_safe on the receiver's
task_struct returned by get_task_struct, instead of dereferencing this
which sits on the receiver's stack.

As Manfred pointed out, the race potentially also exists in
ipc/msg.c::expunge_all and ipc/sem.c::wake_up_sem_queue_prepare. Fix
those in the same way.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Mar 1, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 2, 2024
Last updated Jan 9, 2025

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

0.042%
(5th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2021-47069

GHSA ID

GHSA-47fv-c4cg-c767

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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