CVE-2023-1829

A use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux Kernel traffic control index filter (tcindex) can be exploited to achieve local privilege escalation. The tcindex_delete function which does not properly deactivate filters in case of a perfect hashes while deleting the underlying structure which can later lead to double freeing the structure. A local attacker user can use this vulnerability to elevate its privileges to root. We recommend upgrading past commit 8c710f75256bb3cf05ac7b1672c82b92c43f3d28.

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/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=8c710f75256bb3cf05ac7b1672c82b92c43f3d28
• https://kernel.dance/#8c710f75256bb3cf05ac7b1672c82b92c43f3d28
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00005.html
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/05/msg00006.html
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230601-0001/