CVE-2021-47303

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

bpf: Track subprog poke descriptors correctly and fix use-after-free

Subprograms are calling map_poke_track(), but on program release there is no hook to call map_poke_untrack(). However, on program release, the aux memory (and poke descriptor table) is freed even though we still have a reference to it in the element list of the map aux data. When we run map_poke_run(), we then end up accessing freed memory, triggering KASAN in prog_array_map_poke_run():

[…] [ 402.824689] BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in prog_array_map_poke_run+0xc2/0x34e [ 402.824698] Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881905a7940 by task hubble-fgs/4337 [ 402.824705] CPU: 1 PID: 4337 Comm: hubble-fgs Tainted: G I 5.12.0+ #399 [ 402.824715] Call Trace: [ 402.824719] dump_stack+0x93/0xc2 [ 402.824727] print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1a/0x140 [ 402.824736] ? prog_array_map_poke_run+0xc2/0x34e [ 402.824740] ? prog_array_map_poke_run+0xc2/0x34e [ 402.824744] kasan_report.cold+0x7c/0xd8 [ 402.824752] ? prog_array_map_poke_run+0xc2/0x34e [ 402.824757] prog_array_map_poke_run+0xc2/0x34e [ 402.824765] bpf_fd_array_map_update_elem+0x124/0x1a0 […]

The elements concerned are walked as follows:

for (i = 0; i < elem->aux->size_poke_tab; i++) {
       poke = &elem->aux->poke_tab[i];
[...]

The access to size_poke_tab is a 4 byte read, verified by checking offsets in the KASAN dump:

[ 402.825004] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8881905a7800 which belongs to the cache kmalloc-1k of size 1024 [ 402.825008] The buggy address is located 320 bytes inside of 1024-byte region [ffff8881905a7800, ffff8881905a7c00)

The pahole output of bpf_prog_aux:

struct bpf_prog_aux { […] /* — cacheline 5 boundary (320 bytes) — / u32 size_poke_tab; / 320 4 */ […]

In general, subprograms do not necessarily manage their own data structures. For example, BTF func_info and linfo are just pointers to the main program structure. This allows reference counting and cleanup to be done on the latter which simplifies their management a bit. The aux->poke_tab struct, however, did not follow this logic. The initial proposed fix for this use-after-free bug further embedded poke data tracking into the subprogram with proper reference counting. However, Daniel and Alexei questioned why we were treating these objects special; I agree, its unnecessary. The fix here removes the per subprogram poke table allocation and map tracking and instead simply points the aux->poke_tab pointer at the main programs poke table. This way, map tracking is simplified to the main program and we do not need to manage them per subprogram.

This also means, bpf_prog_free_deferred(), which unwinds the program reference counting and kfrees objects, needs to ensure that we dont try to double free the poke_tab when freeing the subprog structures. This is easily solved by NULLing the poke_tab pointer. The second detail is to ensure that per subprogram JIT logic only does fixups on poke_tab[] entries it owns. To do this, we add a pointer in the poke structure to point at the subprogram value so JITs can easily check while walking the poke_tab structure if the current entry belongs to the current program. The aux pointer is stable and therefore suitable for such comparison. On the jit_subprogs() error path, we omit cleaning up the poke->aux field because these are only ever referenced from the JIT side, but on error we will never make it to the JIT, so its fine to leave them dangling. Removing these pointers would complicate the error path for no reason. However, we do need to untrack all poke descriptors from the main program as otherwise they could race with the freeing of JIT memory from the subprograms. Lastly, a748c6975dea3 (bpf: propagate poke des —truncated—

Weakness

Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.

Affected Software

Extended Description

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.

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/599148d40366bd5d1d504a3a8fcd65e21107e500
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a9f36bf3613c65cb587c70fac655c775d911409b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f263a81451c12da5a342d90572e317e611846f2c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/599148d40366bd5d1d504a3a8fcd65e21107e500
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a9f36bf3613c65cb587c70fac655c775d911409b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f263a81451c12da5a342d90572e317e611846f2c