CVE-2024-56640

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

net/smc: fix LGR and link use-after-free issue

We encountered a LGR/link use-after-free issue, which manifested as the LGR/link refcnt reaching 0 early and entering the clear process, making resource access unsafe.

refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 14 PID: 107447 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0x9c/0x140 Workqueue: events smc_lgr_terminate_work [smc] Call trace: refcount_warn_saturate+0x9c/0x140 __smc_lgr_terminate.part.45+0x2a8/0x370 [smc] smc_lgr_terminate_work+0x28/0x30 [smc] process_one_work+0x1b8/0x420 worker_thread+0x158/0x510 kthread+0x114/0x118

or

refcount_t: underflow; use-after-free. WARNING: CPU: 6 PID: 93140 at lib/refcount.c:28 refcount_warn_saturate+0xf0/0x140 Workqueue: smc_hs_wq smc_listen_work [smc] Call trace: refcount_warn_saturate+0xf0/0x140 smcr_link_put+0x1cc/0x1d8 [smc] smc_conn_free+0x110/0x1b0 [smc] smc_conn_abort+0x50/0x60 [smc] smc_listen_find_device+0x75c/0x790 [smc] smc_listen_work+0x368/0x8a0 [smc] process_one_work+0x1b8/0x420 worker_thread+0x158/0x510 kthread+0x114/0x118

It is caused by repeated release of LGR/link refcnt. One suspect is that smc_conn_free() is called repeatedly because some smc_conn_free() from server listening path are not protected by sock lock.

e.g.

Calls under socklock | smc_listen_work

lock_sock(sk) | smc_conn_abort smc_conn_free | - smc_conn_free

• smcr_link_put | - smcr_link_put (duplicated) release_sock(sk)

So here add sock lock protection in smc_listen_work() path, making it exclusive with other connection operations.

Weakness

The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory “belongs” to the code that operates on the new pointer.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0cf598548a6c36d90681d53c6b77d52363f2f295
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2c7f14ed9c19ec0f149479d1c2842ec1f9bf76d7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/673d606683ac70bc074ca6676b938bff18635226
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f0ae06a234a78ae137064f2c89135ac078a00eb
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f502a88fdd415647a1f2dc45fac71b9c522a052b
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/03/msg00001.html