CVE-2022-49223

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

cxl/port: Hold port reference until decoder release

KASAN + DEBUG_KOBJECT_RELEASE reports a potential use-after-free in cxl_decoder_release() where it goes to reference its parent, a cxl_port, to free its id back to port->decoder_ida.

BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in to_cxl_port+0x18/0x90 [cxl_core] Read of size 8 at addr ffff888119270908 by task kworker/35:2/379

CPU: 35 PID: 379 Comm: kworker/35:2 Tainted: G OE 5.17.0-rc2+ #198 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 Workqueue: events kobject_delayed_cleanup Call Trace: dump_stack_lvl+0x59/0x73 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x1f/0x150 ? to_cxl_port+0x18/0x90 [cxl_core] kasan_report.cold+0x83/0xdf ? to_cxl_port+0x18/0x90 [cxl_core] to_cxl_port+0x18/0x90 [cxl_core] cxl_decoder_release+0x2a/0x60 [cxl_core] device_release+0x5f/0x100 kobject_cleanup+0x80/0x1c0

The device core only guarantees parent lifetime until all children are unregistered. If a child needs a parent to complete its ->release() callback that child needs to hold a reference to extend the lifetime of the parent.

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/49f2dab77a5e1354f5da6ccdc9346a8212697be2
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/518bb96367123062b48b0a9842f2864249b565f6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/74be98774dfbc5b8b795db726bd772e735d2edd4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b0022ca445d5fc4d0c89d15dcd0f855977b22c1d