CVE-2022-49201

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

ibmvnic: fix race between xmit and reset

There is a race between reset and the transmit paths that can lead to ibmvnic_xmit() accessing an scrq after it has been freed in the reset path. It can result in a crash like:

Kernel attempted to read user page (0) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0)
BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000000
Faulting instruction address: 0xc0080000016189f8
Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]
...
NIP [c0080000016189f8] ibmvnic_xmit+0x60/0xb60 [ibmvnic]
LR [c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280
Call Trace:
[c008000001618f08] ibmvnic_xmit+0x570/0xb60 [ibmvnic] (unreliable)
[c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280
[c000000000c9cfcc] sch_direct_xmit+0xec/0x330
[c000000000bfe640] __dev_xmit_skb+0x3a0/0x9d0
[c000000000c00ad4] __dev_queue_xmit+0x394/0x730
[c008000002db813c] __bond_start_xmit+0x254/0x450 [bonding]
[c008000002db8378] bond_start_xmit+0x40/0xc0 [bonding]
[c000000000c0046c] dev_hard_start_xmit+0x11c/0x280
[c000000000c00ca4] __dev_queue_xmit+0x564/0x730
[c000000000cf97e0] neigh_hh_output+0xd0/0x180
[c000000000cfa69c] ip_finish_output2+0x31c/0x5c0
[c000000000cfd244] __ip_queue_xmit+0x194/0x4f0
[c000000000d2a3c4] __tcp_transmit_skb+0x434/0x9b0
[c000000000d2d1e0] __tcp_retransmit_skb+0x1d0/0x6a0
[c000000000d2d984] tcp_retransmit_skb+0x34/0x130
[c000000000d310e8] tcp_retransmit_timer+0x388/0x6d0
[c000000000d315ec] tcp_write_timer_handler+0x1bc/0x330
[c000000000d317bc] tcp_write_timer+0x5c/0x200
[c000000000243270] call_timer_fn+0x50/0x1c0
[c000000000243704] __run_timers.part.0+0x324/0x460
[c000000000243894] run_timer_softirq+0x54/0xa0
[c000000000ea713c] __do_softirq+0x15c/0x3e0
[c000000000166258] __irq_exit_rcu+0x158/0x190
[c000000000166420] irq_exit+0x20/0x40
[c00000000002853c] timer_interrupt+0x14c/0x2b0
[c000000000009a00] decrementer_common_virt+0x210/0x220
--- interrupt: 900 at plpar_hcall_norets_notrace+0x18/0x2c

The immediate cause of the crash is the access of tx_scrq in the following snippet during a reset, where the tx_scrq can be either NULL or an address that will soon be invalid:

ibmvnic_xmit()
{
	...
	tx_scrq = adapter->tx_scrq[queue_num];
	txq = netdev_get_tx_queue(netdev, queue_num);
	ind_bufp = &tx_scrq->ind_buf;

	if (test_bit(0, &adapter->resetting)) {
	...
}

But beyond that, the call to ibmvnic_xmit() itself is not safe during a reset and the reset path attempts to avoid this by stopping the queue in ibmvnic_cleanup(). However just after the queue was stopped, an in-flight ibmvnic_complete_tx() could have restarted the queue even as the reset is progressing.

Since the queue was restarted we could get a call to ibmvnic_xmit() which can then access the bad tx_scrq (or other fields).

We cannot however simply have ibmvnic_complete_tx() check the ->resetting bit and skip starting the queue. This can race at the back-end of a good reset which just restarted the queue but has not cleared the ->resetting bit yet. If we skip restarting the queue due to ->resetting being true, the queue would remain stopped indefinitely potentially leading to transmit timeouts.

IOW ->resetting is too broad for this purpose. Instead use a new flag that indicates whether or not the queues are active. Only the open/ reset paths control when the queues are active. ibmvnic_complete_tx() and others wake up the queue only if the queue is marked active.

So we will have: A. reset/open thread in ibmvnic_cleanup() and __ibmvnic_open()

	->resetting = true
	->tx_queues_active = false
	disable tx queues
	...
	->tx_queues_active = true
	start tx queues

B. Tx interrupt in ibmvnic_complete_tx():

	if (->tx_queues_active)
		netif_wake_subqueue();

To ensure that ->tx_queues_active and state of the queues are consistent, we need a lock which:

- must also be taken in the interrupt path (ibmvnic_complete_tx())
- shared across the multiple

—truncated—

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1bd58abf595b6cf1ba6dd47ec887c4c009155fc9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4219196d1f662cb10a462eb9e076633a3fc31a15
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/475f9cce98b63bc145b4efa66fa51175d4cb345f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8507c6ade73cdbbbda5c3d31d67f52f2e1cf03fe