Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.0. This issue affects the function trace_event_file of the file /sys/kernel/tracing of the component File Descriptor Handler. The manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-52879. There is no exploit available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.0. This vulnerability affects the function trace_event_file of the file /sys/kernel/tracing of the component File Descriptor Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: tracing: Have trace_event_file have ref counters The following can crash the kernel: # cd /sys/kernel/tracing # echo 'p:sched schedule' > kprobe_events # exec 5>>events/kprobes/sched/enable # > kprobe_events # exec 5>&- The above commands: 1. Change directory to the tracefs directory 2. Create a kprobe event (doesn't matter what one) 3. Open bash file descriptor 5 on the enable file of the kprobe event 4. Delete the kprobe event (removes the files too) 5. Close the bash file descriptor 5 The above causes a crash! BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page PGD 0 P4D 0 Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI CPU: 6 PID: 877 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.5.0-rc4-test-00008-g2c6b6b1029d4-dirty #186 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.2-debian-1.16.2-1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:tracing_release_file_tr+0xc/0x50 What happens here is that the kprobe event creates a trace_event_file "file" descriptor that represents the file in tracefs to the event. It maintains state of the event (is it enabled for the given instance?). Opening the "enable" file gets a reference to the event "file" descriptor via the open file descriptor. When the kprobe event is deleted, the file is also deleted from the tracefs system which also frees the event "file" descriptor. But as the tracefs file is still opened by user space, it will not be totally removed until the final dput() is called on it. But this is not true with the event "file" descriptor that is already freed. If the user does a write to or simply closes the file descriptor it will reference the event "file" descriptor that was just freed, causing a use-after-free bug. To solve this, add a ref count to the event "file" descriptor as well as a new flag called "FREED". The "file" will not be freed until the last reference is released. But the FREE flag will be set when the event is removed to prevent any more modifications to that event from happening, even if there's still a reference to the event "file" descriptor.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2023-52879 since 05/21/2024. The exploitation appears to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

Upgrading to version 5.4.262, 5.10.202, 5.15.140, 6.1.64, 6.5.13, 6.6 or 6.6.1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 961c4511c757/a98172e36e5f/cbc7c29dff0f/2fa74d29fc18/2c9de867ca28/9034c87d61be/bb32500fb9b7 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.4.261
• 5.10.201
• 5.15.139
• 6.0
• 6.1
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.1.31
• 6.1.32
• 6.1.33
• 6.1.34
• 6.1.35
• 6.1.36
• 6.1.37
• 6.1.38
• 6.1.39
• 6.1.40
• 6.1.41
• 6.1.42
• 6.1.43
• 6.1.44
• 6.1.45
• 6.1.46
• 6.1.47
• 6.1.48
• 6.1.49
• 6.1.50
• 6.1.51
• 6.1.52
• 6.1.53
• 6.1.54
• 6.1.55
• 6.1.56
• 6.1.57
• 6.1.58
• 6.1.59
• 6.1.60
• 6.1.61
• 6.1.62
• 6.1.63
• 6.2
• 6.3
• 6.4
• 6.5
• 6.5.0
• 6.5.1
• 6.5.2
• 6.5.3
• 6.5.4
• 6.5.5
• 6.5.6
• 6.5.7
• 6.5.8
• 6.5.9
• 6.5.10
• 6.5.11
• 6.5.12
• 6.6
• 6.6.0

License

• open-source

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