CVE-2025-22024

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

nfsd: fix management of listener transports

Currently, when no active threads are running, a root user using nfsdctl command can try to remove a particular listener from the list of previously added ones, then start the server by increasing the number of threads, it leads to the following problem:

[ 158.835354] refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. [ 158.835603] WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 9145 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0x160/0x1a0 [ 158.836017] Modules linked in: rpcrdma rdma_cm iw_cm ib_cm ib_core nfsd auth_rpcgss nfs_acl lockd grace overlay isofs uinput snd_seq_dummy snd_hrtimer nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 rfkill ip_set nf_tables qrtr sunrpc vfat fat uvcvideo videobuf2_vmalloc videobuf2_memops uvc videobuf2_v4l2 videodev videobuf2_common snd_hda_codec_generic mc e1000e snd_hda_intel snd_intel_dspcfg snd_hda_codec snd_hda_core snd_hwdep snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore sg loop dm_multipath dm_mod nfnetlink vsock_loopback vmw_vsock_virtio_transport_common vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vmw_vmci vsock xfs libcrc32c crct10dif_ce ghash_ce vmwgfx sha2_ce sha256_arm64 sr_mod sha1_ce cdrom nvme drm_client_lib drm_ttm_helper ttm nvme_core drm_kms_helper nvme_auth drm fuse [ 158.840093] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 9145 Comm: nfsd Kdump: loaded Tainted: G B W 6.13.0-rc6+ #7 [ 158.840624] Tainted: [B]=BAD_PAGE, [W]=WARN [ 158.840802] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware20,1/VBSA, BIOS VMW201.00V.24006586.BA64.2406042154 06/04/2024 [ 158.841220] pstate: 61400005 (nZCv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO +DIT -SSBS BTYPE=–) [ 158.841563] pc : refcount_warn_saturate+0x160/0x1a0 [ 158.841780] lr : refcount_warn_saturate+0x160/0x1a0 [ 158.842000] sp : ffff800089be7d80 [ 158.842147] x29: ffff800089be7d80 x28: ffff00008e68c148 x27: ffff00008e68c148 [ 158.842492] x26: ffff0002e3b5c000 x25: ffff600011cd1829 x24: ffff00008653c010 [ 158.842832] x23: ffff00008653c000 x22: 1fffe00011cd1829 x21: ffff00008653c028 [ 158.843175] x20: 0000000000000002 x19: ffff00008653c010 x18: 0000000000000000 [ 158.843505] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: 0000000000000000 [ 158.843836] x14: 0000000000000000 x13: 0000000000000001 x12: ffff600050a26493 [ 158.844143] x11: 1fffe00050a26492 x10: ffff600050a26492 x9 : dfff800000000000 [ 158.844475] x8 : 00009fffaf5d9b6e x7 : ffff000285132493 x6 : 0000000000000001 [ 158.844823] x5 : ffff000285132490 x4 : ffff600050a26493 x3 : ffff8000805e72bc [ 158.845174] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff000098588000 [ 158.845528] Call trace: [ 158.845658] refcount_warn_saturate+0x160/0x1a0 (P) [ 158.845894] svc_recv+0x58c/0x680 [sunrpc] [ 158.846183] nfsd+0x1fc/0x348 [nfsd] [ 158.846390] kthread+0x274/0x2f8 [ 158.846546] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 [ 158.846714] —[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]—

nfsd_nl_listener_set_doit() would manipulate the list of transports of servers sv_permsocks and close the specified listener but the other list of transports (servers sp_xprts list) would not be changed leading to the problem above.

Instead, determined if the nfsdctl is trying to remove a listener, in which case, delete all the existing listener transports and re-create all-but-the-removed ones.

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/052a34f093fb940a145493d1438e7abbfe507cdd
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0f42df0ab2b11ea6b2884bdaf6dbc3be6dde7e82
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a84c80515ca8a0cdf6d06f1b6ca721224b08453e
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d093c90892607be505e801469d6674459e69ab89