CVE-2022-48868

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

dmaengine: idxd: Let probe fail when workqueue cannot be enabled

The workqueue is enabled when the appropriate driver is loaded and disabled when the driver is removed. When the driver is removed it assumes that the workqueue was enabled successfully and proceeds to free allocations made during workqueue enabling.

Failure during workqueue enabling does not prevent the driver from being loaded. This is because the error path within drv_enable_wq() returns success unless a second failure is encountered during the error path. By returning success it is possible to load the driver even if the workqueue cannot be enabled and allocations that do not exist are attempted to be freed during driver remove.

Some examples of problematic flows: (a)

idxd_dmaengine_drv_probe() -> drv_enable_wq() -> idxd_wq_request_irq(): In above flow, if idxd_wq_request_irq() fails then idxd_wq_unmap_portal() is called on error exit path, but drv_enable_wq() returns 0 because idxd_wq_disable() succeeds. The driver is thus loaded successfully.

idxd_dmaengine_drv_remove()->drv_disable_wq()->idxd_wq_unmap_portal() Above flow on driver unload triggers the WARN in devm_iounmap() because the device resource has already been removed during error path of drv_enable_wq().

(b)

idxd_dmaengine_drv_probe() -> drv_enable_wq() -> idxd_wq_request_irq(): In above flow, if idxd_wq_request_irq() fails then idxd_wq_init_percpu_ref() is never called to initialize the percpu counter, yet the driver loads successfully because drv_enable_wq() returns 0.

idxd_dmaengine_drv_remove()->__idxd_wq_quiesce()->percpu_ref_kill(): Above flow on driver unload triggers a BUG when attempting to drop the initial ref of the uninitialized percpu ref: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010

Fix the drv_enable_wq() error path by returning the original error that indicates failure of workqueue enabling. This ensures that the probe fails when an error is encountered and the driver remove paths are only attempted when the workqueue was enabled successfully.

Weakness

A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f150134dd795ffcd60b798a85ab737d8d010fb7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/99dc4520b74e7ca8e9dc9abe37a0b10b49467960
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b51b75f0604f17c0f6f3b6f68f1a521a5cc6b04f