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

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/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