CVE-2024-46842

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

scsi: lpfc: Handle mailbox timeouts in lpfc_get_sfp_info

The MBX_TIMEOUT return code is not handled in lpfc_get_sfp_info and the routine unconditionally frees submitted mailbox commands regardless of return status. The issue is that for MBX_TIMEOUT cases, when firmware returns SFP information at a later time, that same mailbox memory region references previously freed memory in its cmpl routine.

Fix by adding checks for the MBX_TIMEOUT return code. During mailbox resource cleanup, check the mbox flag to make sure that the wait did not timeout. If the MBOX_WAKE flag is not set, then do not free the resources because it will be freed when firmware completes the mailbox at a later time in its cmpl routine.

Also, increase the timeout from 30 to 60 seconds to accommodate boot scripts requiring longer timeouts.

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/bba47fe3b038cca3d3ebd799665ce69d6d273b58
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ede596b1434b57c0b3fd5c02b326efe5c54f6e48