CVE-2024-35843

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

iommu/vt-d: Use device rbtree in iopf reporting path

The existing I/O page fault handler currently locates the PCI device by calling pci_get_domain_bus_and_slot(). This function searches the list of all PCI devices until the desired device is found. To improve lookup efficiency, replace it with device_rbtree_find() to search the device within the probed device rbtree.

The I/O page fault is initiated by the device, which does not have any synchronization mechanism with the software to ensure that the device stays in the probed device tree. Theoretically, a device could be released by the IOMMU subsystem after device_rbtree_find() and before iopf_get_dev_fault_param(), which would cause a use-after-free problem.

Add a mutex to synchronize the I/O page fault reporting path and the IOMMU release device path. This lock doesnt introduce any performance overhead, as the conflict between I/O page fault reporting and device releasing is very rare.

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/3d39238991e745c5df85785604f037f35d9d1b15
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/def054b01a867822254e1dda13d587f5c7a99e2a