CVE-2024-40906

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

net/mlx5: Always stop health timer during driver removal

Currently, if teardown_hca fails to execute during driver removal, mlx5 does not stop the health timer. Afterwards, mlx5 continue with driver teardown. This may lead to a UAF bug, which results in page fault Oops[1], since the health timer invokes after resources were freed.

Hence, stop the health monitor even if teardown_hca fails.

[1] mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: E-Switch: Unload vfs: mode(LEGACY), nvfs(0), necvfs(0), active vports(0) mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: E-Switch: Disable: mode(LEGACY), nvfs(0), necvfs(0), active vports(0) mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: E-Switch: Disable: mode(LEGACY), nvfs(0), necvfs(0), active vports(0) mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: E-Switch: cleanup mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: wait_func:1155:(pid 1967079): TEARDOWN_HCA(0x103) timeout. Will cause a leak of a command resource mlx5_core 0000:18:00.0: mlx5_function_close:1288:(pid 1967079): tear_down_hca failed, skip cleanup BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffa26487064230 PGD 100c00067 P4D 100c00067 PUD 100e5a067 PMD 105ed7067 PTE 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G OE ——- — 6.7.0-68.fc38.x86_64 #1 Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600WFT/S2600WFT, BIOS SE5C620.86B.02.01.0013.121520200651 12/15/2020 RIP: 0010:ioread32be+0x34/0x60 RSP: 0018:ffffa26480003e58 EFLAGS: 00010292 RAX: ffffa26487064200 RBX: ffff9042d08161a0 RCX: ffff904c108222c0 RDX: 000000010bbf1b80 RSI: ffffffffc055ddb0 RDI: ffffa26487064230 RBP: ffff9042d08161a0 R08: 0000000000000022 R09: ffff904c108222e8 R10: 0000000000000004 R11: 0000000000000441 R12: ffffffffc055ddb0 R13: ffffa26487064200 R14: ffffa26480003f00 R15: ffff904c108222c0 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff904c10800000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffa26487064230 CR3: 00000002c4420006 CR4: 00000000007706f0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: ? __die+0x23/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x171/0x4e0 ? exc_page_fault+0x175/0x180 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30 ? __pfx_poll_health+0x10/0x10 [mlx5_core] ? __pfx_poll_health+0x10/0x10 [mlx5_core] ? ioread32be+0x34/0x60 mlx5_health_check_fatal_sensors+0x20/0x100 [mlx5_core] ? __pfx_poll_health+0x10/0x10 [mlx5_core] poll_health+0x42/0x230 [mlx5_core] ? __next_timer_interrupt+0xbc/0x110 ? __pfx_poll_health+0x10/0x10 [mlx5_core] call_timer_fn+0x21/0x130 ? __pfx_poll_health+0x10/0x10 [mlx5_core] __run_timers+0x222/0x2c0 run_timer_softirq+0x1d/0x40 __do_softirq+0xc9/0x2c8 __irq_exit_rcu+0xa6/0xc0 sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x72/0x90 asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x1a/0x20 RIP: 0010:cpuidle_enter_state+0xcc/0x440 ? cpuidle_enter_state+0xbd/0x440 cpuidle_enter+0x2d/0x40 do_idle+0x20d/0x270 cpu_startup_entry+0x2a/0x30 rest_init+0xd0/0xd0 arch_call_rest_init+0xe/0x30 start_kernel+0x709/0xa90 x86_64_start_reservations+0x18/0x30 x86_64_start_kernel+0x96/0xa0 secondary_startup_64_no_verify+0x18f/0x19b —[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]—

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/6ccada6ffb42e0ac75e3db06d41baf5a7f483f8a
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c8b3f38d2dae0397944814d691a419c451f9906f
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e6777ae0bf6fd5bc626bb051c8c93e3c8198a3f8
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e7d4485d47839f4d1284592ae242c4e65b2810a9