CVE-2025-21633

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

io_uring/sqpoll: zero sqd->thread on tctx errors

Syzkeller reports:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in thread_group_cputime+0x409/0x700 kernel/sched/cputime.c:341 Read of size 8 at addr ffff88803578c510 by task syz.2.3223/27552 Call Trace: … kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602 thread_group_cputime+0x409/0x700 kernel/sched/cputime.c:341 thread_group_cputime_adjusted+0xa6/0x340 kernel/sched/cputime.c:639 getrusage+0x1000/0x1340 kernel/sys.c:1863 io_uring_show_fdinfo+0xdfe/0x1770 io_uring/fdinfo.c:197 seq_show+0x608/0x770 fs/proc/fd.c:68 …

Thats due to sqd->task not being cleared properly in cases where SQPOLL task tctx setup fails, which can essentially only happen with fault injection to insert allocation errors.

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/4b7cfa8b6c28a9fa22b86894166a1a34f6d630ba
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/aa7496d668c30ca7421b3bfdcd948ee861a13d17