CVE-2023-53094

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

tty: serial: fsl_lpuart: fix race on RX DMA shutdown

From time to time DMA completion can come in the middle of DMA shutdown:

: : lpuart32_shutdown() lpuart_dma_shutdown() del_timer_sync() lpuart_dma_rx_complete() lpuart_copy_rx_to_tty() mod_timer() lpuart_dma_rx_free()

When the timer fires a bit later, sport->dma_rx_desc is NULL:

Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000004 pc : lpuart_copy_rx_to_tty+0xcc/0x5bc lr : lpuart_timer_func+0x1c/0x2c Call trace: lpuart_copy_rx_to_tty lpuart_timer_func call_timer_fn __run_timers.part.0 run_timer_softirq __do_softirq __irq_exit_rcu irq_exit handle_domain_irq gic_handle_irq call_on_irq_stack do_interrupt_handler …

To fix this fold del_timer_sync() into lpuart_dma_rx_free() after dmaengine_terminate_sync() to make sure timer will not be re-started in lpuart_copy_rx_to_tty() <= lpuart_dma_rx_complete().

Weakness

The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.

Affected Software

Extended Description

A race condition occurs within concurrent environments, and it is effectively a property of a code sequence. Depending on the context, a code sequence may be in the form of a function call, a small number of instructions, a series of program invocations, etc. A race condition violates these properties, which are closely related:

A race condition exists when an “interfering code sequence” can still access the shared resource, violating exclusivity. The interfering code sequence could be “trusted” or “untrusted.” A trusted interfering code sequence occurs within the product; it cannot be modified by the attacker, and it can only be invoked indirectly. An untrusted interfering code sequence can be authored directly by the attacker, and typically it is external to the vulnerable product.

Potential Mitigations

• Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
• Additionally, this will minimize the amount of synchronization necessary and may even help to reduce the likelihood of a denial of service where an attacker may be able to repeatedly trigger a critical section (CWE-400).

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/26.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/29.html

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/19a98d56dfedafb25652bdb9cd48a4e73ceba702
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1be6f2b15f902c02e055ae0b419ca789200473c9
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2a36b444cace9580380467fd1183bb5e85bcc80a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/90530e7214c8a04dcdde57502d93fa96af288c38
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/954fc9931f0aabf272b5674cf468affdd88d3a36