CVE-2024-45000

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

fs/netfs/fscache_cookie: add missing n_accesses check

This fixes a NULL pointer dereference bug due to a data race which looks like this:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI CPU: 33 PID: 16573 Comm: kworker/u97:799 Not tainted 6.8.7-cm4all1-hp+ #43 Hardware name: HP ProLiant DL380 Gen9/ProLiant DL380 Gen9, BIOS P89 10/17/2018 Workqueue: events_unbound netfs_rreq_write_to_cache_work RIP: 0010:cachefiles_prepare_write+0x30/0xa0 Code: 57 41 56 45 89 ce 41 55 49 89 cd 41 54 49 89 d4 55 53 48 89 fb 48 83 ec 08 48 8b 47 08 48 83 7f 10 00 48 89 34 24 48 8b 68 20 <48> 8b 45 08 4c 8b 38 74 45 49 8b 7f 50 e8 4e a9 b0 ff 48 8b 73 10 RSP: 0018:ffffb4e78113bde0 EFLAGS: 00010286 RAX: ffff976126be6d10 RBX: ffff97615cdb8438 RCX: 0000000000020000 RDX: ffff97605e6c4c68 RSI: ffff97605e6c4c60 RDI: ffff97615cdb8438 RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000278333 R09: 0000000000000001 R10: ffff97605e6c4600 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff97605e6c4c68 R13: 0000000000020000 R14: 0000000000000001 R15: ffff976064fe2c00 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9776dfd40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 0000000000000008 CR3: 000000005942c002 CR4: 00000000001706f0 Call Trace: ? __die+0x1f/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x15d/0x440 ? search_module_extables+0xe/0x40 ? fixup_exception+0x22/0x2f0 ? exc_page_fault+0x5f/0x100 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 ? cachefiles_prepare_write+0x30/0xa0 netfs_rreq_write_to_cache_work+0x135/0x2e0 process_one_work+0x137/0x2c0 worker_thread+0x2e9/0x400 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xcc/0x100 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x30/0x50 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 Modules linked in: CR2: 0000000000000008 —[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]—

This happened because fscache_cookie_state_machine() was slow and was still running while another process invoked fscache_unuse_cookie(); this led to a fscache_cookie_lru_do_one() call, setting the FSCACHE_COOKIE_DO_LRU_DISCARD flag, which was picked up by fscache_cookie_state_machine(), withdrawing the cookie via cachefiles_withdraw_cookie(), clearing cookie->cache_priv.

At the same time, yet another process invoked cachefiles_prepare_write(), which found a NULL pointer in this code line:

struct cachefiles_object *object = cachefiles_cres_object(cres);

The next line crashes, obviously:

struct cachefiles_cache *cache = object->volume->cache;

During cachefiles_prepare_write(), the n_accesses counter is non-zero (via fscache_begin_operation()). The cookie must not be withdrawn until it drops to zero.

The counter is checked by fscache_cookie_state_machine() before switching to FSCACHE_COOKIE_STATE_RELINQUISHING and FSCACHE_COOKIE_STATE_WITHDRAWING (in case FSCACHE_COOKIE_STATE_FAILED), but not for FSCACHE_COOKIE_STATE_LRU_DISCARDING (case FSCACHE_COOKIE_STATE_ACTIVE).

This patch adds the missing check. With a non-zero access counter, the function returns and the next fscache_end_cookie_access() call will queue another fscache_cookie_state_machine() call to handle the still-pending FSCACHE_COOKIE_DO_LRU_DISCARD.

Weakness

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0a4d41fa14b2a0efd40e350cfe8ec6a4c998ac1d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b8a50877f68efdcc0be3fcc5116e00c31b90e45b
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dfaa39b05a6cf34a16c525a2759ee6ab26b5fef6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f71aa06398aabc2e3eaac25acdf3d62e0094ba70
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/01/msg00001.html