CVE-2023-52564

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

Revert tty: n_gsm: fix UAF in gsm_cleanup_mux

This reverts commit 9b9c8195f3f0d74a826077fc1c01b9ee74907239.

The commit above is reverted as it did not solve the original issue.

gsm_cleanup_mux() tries to free up the virtual ttys by calling gsm_dlci_release() for each available DLCI. There, dlci_put() is called to decrease the reference counter for the DLCI via tty_port_put() which finally calls gsm_dlci_free(). This already clears the pointer which is being checked in gsm_cleanup_mux() before calling gsm_dlci_release(). Therefore, it is not necessary to clear this pointer in gsm_cleanup_mux() as done in the reverted commit. The commit introduces a null pointer dereference: ? __die+0x1f/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x156/0x420 ? search_exception_tables+0x37/0x50 ? fixup_exception+0x21/0x310 ? exc_page_fault+0x69/0x150 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 ? tty_port_put+0x19/0xa0 gsmtty_cleanup+0x29/0x80 [n_gsm] release_one_tty+0x37/0xe0 process_one_work+0x1e6/0x3e0 worker_thread+0x4c/0x3d0 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xe1/0x110 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x2f/0x50 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30

The actual issue is that nothing guards dlci_put() from being called multiple times while the tty driver was triggered but did not yet finished calling gsm_dlci_free().

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/29346e217b8ab8a52889b88f00b268278d6b7668
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2bff660e0ff349dee84dc4f6f6d10da4497f5b28
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d5c8862932d31a810b6545f7d69ecc124402c6e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a48d2bcd23f2c98d575bc2f9b7a3fbd16aeea9eb
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c61d0b87a7028c2c10faffc524d748334c7b9827
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/29346e217b8ab8a52889b88f00b268278d6b7668
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2bff660e0ff349dee84dc4f6f6d10da4497f5b28
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6d5c8862932d31a810b6545f7d69ecc124402c6e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a48d2bcd23f2c98d575bc2f9b7a3fbd16aeea9eb
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c61d0b87a7028c2c10faffc524d748334c7b9827