CVE-2022-48867

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

dmaengine: idxd: Prevent use after free on completion memory

On driver unload any pending descriptors are flushed at the time the interrupt is freed: idxd_dmaengine_drv_remove() -> drv_disable_wq() -> idxd_wq_free_irq() -> idxd_flush_pending_descs().

If there are any descriptors present that need to be flushed this flow triggers a not present page fault as below:

BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ff391c97c70c9040 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page

The address that triggers the fault is the address of the descriptor that was freed moments earlier via: drv_disable_wq()->idxd_wq_free_resources()

Fix the use after free by freeing the descriptors after any possible usage. This is done after idxd_wq_reset() to ensure that the memory remains accessible during possible completion writes by the device.

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/1beeec45f9ac31eba52478379f70a5fa9c2ad005
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b9e8e3fcfec625fc1c2f68f684448aeeb882625b