In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
usb: gadget: f_fs: Clear ffs_eventfd in ffs_data_clear.
ffs_data_clear is indirectly called from both ffs_fs_kill_sb and ffs_ep0_release, so it ends up being called twice when userland closes ep0 and then unmounts f_fs. If userland provided an eventfd along with functions USB descriptors, it ends up calling eventfd_ctx_put as many times, causing a refcount underflow. NULL-ify ffs_eventfd to prevent these extraneous eventfd_ctx_put calls.
Also, set epfiles to NULL right after de-allocating it, for readability.
For completeness, ffs_data_clear actually ends up being called thrice, the last call being before the whole ffs structure gets freed, so when this specific sequence happens there is a second underflow happening (but not being reported):
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing# modprobe usb_f_fs /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo ffs_data_clear > set_ftrace_filter /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo function > current_tracer /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 1 > tracing_on (setup gadget, run and kill function userland process, teardown gadget) /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# echo 0 > tracing_on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing# cat trace smartcard-openp-436 [000] ….. 1946.208786: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed smartcard-openp-431 [000] ….. 1946.279147: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_closed smartcard-openp-431 [000] .n… 1946.905512: ffs_data_clear <-ffs_data_put
Warning output corresponding to above trace: [ 1946.284139] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 431 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c [ 1946.293094] refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. [ 1946.298164] Modules linked in: usb_f_ncm(E) u_ether(E) usb_f_fs(E) hci_uart(E) btqca(E) btrtl(E) btbcm(E) btintel(E) bluetooth(E) nls_ascii(E) nls_cp437(E) vfat(E) fat(E) bcm2835_v4l2(CE) bcm2835_mmal_vchiq(CE) videobuf2_vmalloc(E) videobuf2_memops(E) sha512_generic(E) videobuf2_v4l2(E) sha512_arm(E) videobuf2_common(E) videodev(E) cpufreq_dt(E) snd_bcm2835(CE) brcmfmac(E) mc(E) vc4(E) ctr(E) brcmutil(E) snd_soc_core(E) snd_pcm_dmaengine(E) drbg(E) snd_pcm(E) snd_timer(E) snd(E) soundcore(E) drm_kms_helper(E) cec(E) ansi_cprng(E) rc_core(E) syscopyarea(E) raspberrypi_cpufreq(E) sysfillrect(E) sysimgblt(E) cfg80211(E) max17040_battery(OE) raspberrypi_hwmon(E) fb_sys_fops(E) regmap_i2c(E) ecdh_generic(E) rfkill(E) ecc(E) bcm2835_rng(E) rng_core(E) vchiq(CE) leds_gpio(E) libcomposite(E) fuse(E) configfs(E) ip_tables(E) x_tables(E) autofs4(E) ext4(E) crc16(E) mbcache(E) jbd2(E) crc32c_generic(E) sdhci_iproc(E) sdhci_pltfm(E) sdhci(E) [ 1946.399633] CPU: 0 PID: 431 Comm: smartcard-openp Tainted: G C OE 5.15.0-1-rpi #1 Debian 5.15.3-1 [ 1946.417950] Hardware name: BCM2835 [ 1946.425442] Backtrace: [ 1946.432048] [] (dump_backtrace) from [] (show_stack+0x20/0x24) [ 1946.448226] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c04a948c r4:c0a64e2c [ 1946.458412] [] (show_stack) from [] (dump_stack+0x28/0x30) [ 1946.470380] [] (dump_stack) from [] (__warn+0xe8/0x154) [ 1946.482067] r5:c04a948c r4:c0a71dc8 [ 1946.490184] [] (__warn) from [] (warn_slowpath_fmt+0xa0/0xe4) [ 1946.506758] r7:00000009 r6:0000001c r5:c0a71dc8 r4:c0a71e04 [ 1946.517070] [] (warn_slowpath_fmt) from [] (refcount_warn_saturate+0x110/0x15c) [ 1946.535309] r8:c0100224 r7:c0dfcb84 r6:ffffffff r5:c3b84c00 r4:c24a17c0 [ 1946.546708] [] (refcount_warn_saturate) from [] (eventfd_ctx_put+0x48/0x74) [ 1946.564476] [] (eventfd_ctx_put) from [] (ffs_data_clear+0xd0/0x118 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.582664] r5:c3b84c00 r4:c2695b00 [ 1946.590668] [] (ffs_data_clear [usb_f_fs]) from [] (ffs_data_closed+0x9c/0x150 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.609608] r5:bf54d014 r4:c2695b00 [ 1946.617522] [] (ffs_data_closed [usb_f_fs]) from [] (ffs_fs_kill_sb+0x2c/0x30 [usb_f_fs]) [ 1946.636217] r7:c0dfcb —truncated—
Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 4.0.0 (including) | 4.4.298 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 4.5.0 (including) | 4.9.296 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 4.10.0 (including) | 4.14.261 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 4.15.0 (including) | 4.19.224 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 4.20.0 (including) | 5.4.170 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 5.5.0 (including) | 5.10.90 (excluding) |
| Linux_kernel | Linux | 5.11.0 (including) | 5.15.13 (excluding) |
The use of previously-freed memory can have any number of adverse consequences, ranging from the corruption of valid data to the execution of arbitrary code, depending on the instantiation and timing of the flaw. The simplest way data corruption may occur involves the system’s reuse of the freed memory. Use-after-free errors have two common and sometimes overlapping causes:
In this scenario, the memory in question is allocated to another pointer validly at some point after it has been freed. The original pointer to the freed memory is used again and points to somewhere within the new allocation. As the data is changed, it corrupts the validly used memory; this induces undefined behavior in the process. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.