CVE-2022-48935

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

netfilter: nf_tables: unregister flowtable hooks on netns exit

Unregister flowtable hooks before they are releases via nf_tables_flowtable_destroy() otherwise hook core reports UAF.

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 Read of size 4 at addr ffff8880736f7438 by task syz-executor579/3666

CPU: 0 PID: 3666 Comm: syz-executor579 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc5-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/01/2011 Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] lib/dump_stack.c:106 dump_stack_lvl+0x1dc/0x2d8 lib/dump_stack.c:106 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description+0x65/0x380 mm/kasan/report.c:247 mm/kasan/report.c:247 __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] __kasan_report mm/kasan/report.c:433 [inline] mm/kasan/report.c:450 kasan_report+0x19a/0x1f0 mm/kasan/report.c:450 mm/kasan/report.c:450 nf_hook_entries_grow+0x5a7/0x700 net/netfilter/core.c:142 net/netfilter/core.c:142 __nf_register_net_hook+0x27e/0x8d0 net/netfilter/core.c:429 net/netfilter/core.c:429 nf_register_net_hook+0xaa/0x180 net/netfilter/core.c:571 net/netfilter/core.c:571 nft_register_flowtable_net_hooks+0x3c5/0x730 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7232 nf_tables_newflowtable+0x2022/0x2cf0 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 net/netfilter/nf_tables_api.c:7430 nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] nfnetlink_rcv_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:513 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv_skb_batch net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:634 [inline] net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 nfnetlink_rcv+0x10e6/0x2550 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652 net/netfilter/nfnetlink.c:652

__nft_release_hook() calls nft_unregister_flowtable_net_hooks() which only unregisters the hooks, then after RCU grace period, it is guaranteed that no packets add new entries to the flowtable (no flow offload rules and flowtable hooks are reachable from packet path), so it is safe to call nf_flow_table_free() which cleans up the remaining entries from the flowtable (both software and hardware) and it unbinds the flow_block.

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/6069da443bf65f513bb507bb21e2f87cfb1ad0b6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/88c795491bf45a8c08a0f94c9ca4f13722e51013
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8ffb8ac3448845f65634889b051bd65e4dee484b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b05a24cc453e3cd51b0c79e3c583b5d495eba1d6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b4fcc081e527aa2ce12e956912fc47e251f6bd27
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e51f30826bc5384801df98d76109c94953d1df64