In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
padata: Fix refcnt handling in padatafreeshell()
In a high-load arm64 environment, the pcryptaead01 test in LTP can lead to system UAF (Use-After-Free) issues. Due to the lengthy analysis of the pcryptaead01 function call, I'll describe the problem scenario using a simplified model:
Suppose there's a user of padata named user_function
that adheres to
the padata requirement of calling padata_free_shell
after serial()
has been invoked, as demonstrated in the following code:
struct request {
struct padata_priv padata;
struct completion *done;
};
void parallel(struct padata_priv *padata) {
do_something();
}
void serial(struct padata_priv *padata) {
struct request *request = container_of(padata,
struct request,
padata);
complete(request->done);
}
void user_function() {
DECLARE_COMPLETION(done)
padata->parallel = parallel;
padata->serial = serial;
padata_do_parallel();
wait_for_completion(&done);
padata_free_shell();
}
In the corresponding padata.c file, there's the following code:
static void padata_serial_worker(struct work_struct *serial_work) {
...
cnt = 0;
while (!list_empty(&local_list)) {
...
padata->serial(padata);
cnt++;
}
local_bh_enable();
if (refcount_sub_and_test(cnt, &pd->refcnt))
padata_free_pd(pd);
}
Because of the high system load and the accumulation of unexecuted
softirq at this moment, local_bh_enable()
in padata takes longer
to execute than usual. Subsequently, when accessing pd->refcnt
,
pd
has already been released by padata_free_shell()
, resulting
in a UAF issue with pd->refcnt
.
The fix is straightforward: add refcount_dec_and_test
before calling
padata_free_pd
in padata_free_shell
.