CVE-2021-47536

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

net/smc: fix wrong list_del in smc_lgr_cleanup_early

smc_lgr_cleanup_early() meant to delete the link group from the link group list, but it deleted the list head by mistake.

This may cause memory corruption since we didnt remove the real link group from the list and later memseted the link group structure. We got a list corruption panic when testing:

[  231.277259] list_del corruption. prev->next should be ffff8881398a8000, but was 0000000000000000 [  231.278222] ————[ cut here ]———— [  231.278726] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:53! [  231.279326] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI [  231.279803] CPU: 0 PID: 5 Comm: kworker/0:0 Not tainted 5.10.46+ #435 [  231.280466] Hardware name: Alibaba Cloud ECS, BIOS 8c24b4c 04/01/2014 [  231.281248] Workqueue: events smc_link_down_work [  231.281732] RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid+0x70/0x90 [  231.282258] Code: 4c 60 82 e8 7d cc 6a 00 0f 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 88 4c 60 82 e8 6c cc 6a 00 0f 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 c0 4c 60 82 e8 5b cc 6a 00 <0f> 0b 48 89 fe 48 c7 c7 00 4d 60 82 e8 4a cc 6a 00 0f 0b cc cc cc [  231.284146] RSP: 0018:ffffc90000033d58 EFLAGS: 00010292 [  231.284685] RAX: 0000000000000054 RBX: ffff8881398a8000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [  231.285415] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: ffff88813bc18040 RDI: ffff88813bc18040 [  231.286141] RBP: ffffffff8305ad40 R08: 0000000000000003 R09: 0000000000000001 [  231.286873] R10: ffffffff82803da0 R11: ffffc90000033b90 R12: 0000000000000001 [  231.287606] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8881398a8000 R15: 0000000000000003 [  231.288337] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88813bc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [  231.289160] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [  231.289754] CR2: 0000000000e72058 CR3: 000000010fa96006 CR4: 00000000003706f0 [  231.290485] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [  231.291211] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [  231.291940] Call Trace: [  231.292211]  smc_lgr_terminate_sched+0x53/0xa0 [  231.292677]  smc_switch_conns+0x75/0x6b0 [  231.293085]  ? update_load_avg+0x1a6/0x590 [  231.293517]  ? ttwu_do_wakeup+0x17/0x150 [  231.293907]  ? update_load_avg+0x1a6/0x590 [  231.294317]  ? newidle_balance+0xca/0x3d0 [  231.294716]  smcr_link_down+0x50/0x1a0 [  231.295090]  ? __wake_up_common_lock+0x77/0x90 [  231.295534]  smc_link_down_work+0x46/0x60 [  231.295933]  process_one_work+0x18b/0x350

Weakness

The product writes data past the end, or before the beginning, of the intended buffer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• For example, many languages that perform their own memory management, such as Java and Perl, are not subject to buffer overflows. Other languages, such as Ada and C#, typically provide overflow protection, but the protection can be disabled by the programmer.

• Be wary that a language’s interface to native code may still be subject to overflows, even if the language itself is theoretically safe.

• Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.

• Examples include the Safe C String Library (SafeStr) by Messier and Viega [REF-57], and the Strsafe.h library from Microsoft [REF-56]. These libraries provide safer versions of overflow-prone string-handling functions.

• Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking.

• D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation) from D3FEND [REF-1334] discusses canary-based detection in detail.

• Consider adhering to the following rules when allocating and managing an application’s memory:

• Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program’s executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code.

• Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Executables (PIE) [REF-64]. Imported modules may be similarly realigned if their default memory addresses conflict with other modules, in a process known as “rebasing” (for Windows) and “prelinking” (for Linux) [REF-1332] using randomly generated addresses. ASLR for libraries cannot be used in conjunction with prelink since it would require relocating the libraries at run-time, defeating the whole purpose of prelinking.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-SAOR (Segment Address Offset Randomization) from D3FEND [REF-1335].

• Use a CPU and operating system that offers Data Execution Protection (using hardware NX or XD bits) or the equivalent techniques that simulate this feature in software, such as PaX [REF-60] [REF-61]. These techniques ensure that any instruction executed is exclusively at a memory address that is part of the code segment.

• For more information on these techniques see D3-PSEP (Process Segment Execution Prevention) from D3FEND [REF-1336].

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77731fede297a23d26f2d169b4269466b2c82529
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/789b6cc2a5f9123b9c549b886fdc47c865cfe0ba
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95518fe354d712dca6f431cf2a11b8f63bc9a66c
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/77731fede297a23d26f2d169b4269466b2c82529
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/789b6cc2a5f9123b9c549b886fdc47c865cfe0ba
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/95518fe354d712dca6f431cf2a11b8f63bc9a66c