CVE-2021-47382

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

s390/qeth: fix deadlock during failing recovery

Commit 0b9902c1fcc5 (s390/qeth: fix deadlock during recovery) removed taking discipline_mutex inside qeth_do_reset(), fixing potential deadlocks. An error path was missed though, that still takes discipline_mutex and thus has the original deadlock potential.

Intermittent deadlocks were seen when a qeth channel path is configured offline, causing a race between qeth_do_reset and ccwgroup_remove. Call qeth_set_offline() directly in the qeth_do_reset() error case and then a new variant of ccwgroup_set_offline(), without taking discipline_mutex.

Weakness

The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.

Affected Software

Extended Description

A race condition occurs within concurrent environments, and it is effectively a property of a code sequence. Depending on the context, a code sequence may be in the form of a function call, a small number of instructions, a series of program invocations, etc. A race condition violates these properties, which are closely related:

A race condition exists when an “interfering code sequence” can still access the shared resource, violating exclusivity. The interfering code sequence could be “trusted” or “untrusted.” A trusted interfering code sequence occurs within the product; it cannot be modified by the attacker, and it can only be invoked indirectly. An untrusted interfering code sequence can be authored directly by the attacker, and typically it is external to the vulnerable product.

Potential Mitigations

• Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
• Additionally, this will minimize the amount of synchronization necessary and may even help to reduce the likelihood of a denial of service where an attacker may be able to repeatedly trigger a critical section (CWE-400).

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0bfe741741327822d1482c7edef0184636d08b40
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d2b59bd4b06d84a4eadb520b0f71c62fe8ec0a62
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0bfe741741327822d1482c7edef0184636d08b40
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d2b59bd4b06d84a4eadb520b0f71c62fe8ec0a62