Linux Kernel up to 6.1.87/6.6.28/6.8.2/6.9-rc1 i915 lib/debugobjects.c __active_retire use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.87/6.6.28/6.8.2/6.9-rc1. This issue affects the function __active_retire in the library lib/debugobjects.c of the component i915. This manipulation causes use after free. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-26939. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.87/6.6.28/6.8.2/6.9-rc1 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is the function __active_retire in the library lib/debugobjects.c of the component i915. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/i915/vma: Fix UAF on destroy against retire race Object debugging tools were sporadically reporting illegal attempts to free a still active i915 VMA object when parking a GT believed to be idle. [161.359441] ODEBUG: free active (active state 0) object: ffff88811643b958 object type: i915_active hint: __i915_vma_active+0x0/0x50 [i915] [161.360082] WARNING: CPU: 5 PID: 276 at lib/debugobjects.c:514 debug_print_object+0x80/0xb0 ... [161.360304] CPU: 5 PID: 276 Comm: kworker/5:2 Not tainted 6.5.0-rc1-CI_DRM_13375-g003f860e5577+ #1 [161.360314] Hardware name: Intel Corporation Rocket Lake Client Platform/RocketLake S UDIMM 6L RVP, BIOS RKLSFWI1.R00.3173.A03.2204210138 04/21/2022 [161.360322] Workqueue: i915-unordered __intel_wakeref_put_work [i915] [161.360592] RIP: 0010:debug_print_object+0x80/0xb0 ... [161.361347] debug_object_free+0xeb/0x110 [161.361362] i915_active_fini+0x14/0x130 [i915] [161.361866] release_references+0xfe/0x1f0 [i915] [161.362543] i915_vma_parked+0x1db/0x380 [i915] [161.363129] __gt_park+0x121/0x230 [i915] [161.363515] ____intel_wakeref_put_last+0x1f/0x70 [i915] That has been tracked down to be happening when another thread is deactivating the VMA inside __active_retire() helper, after the VMA's active counter has been already decremented to 0, but before deactivation of the VMA's object is reported to the object debugging tool. We could prevent from that race by serializing i915_active_fini() with __active_retire() via ref->tree_lock, but that wouldn't stop the VMA from being used, e.g. from __i915_vma_retire() called at the end of __active_retire(), after that VMA has been already freed by a concurrent i915_vma_destroy() on return from the i915_active_fini(). Then, we should rather fix the issue at the VMA level, not in i915_active. Since __i915_vma_parked() is called from __gt_park() on last put of the GT's wakeref, the issue could be addressed by holding the GT wakeref long enough for __active_retire() to complete before that wakeref is released and the GT parked. I believe the issue was introduced by commit d93939730347 ("drm/i915: Remove the vma refcount") which moved a call to i915_active_fini() from a dropped i915_vma_release(), called on last put of the removed VMA kref, to i915_vma_parked() processing path called on last put of a GT wakeref. However, its visibility to the object debugging tool was suppressed by a bug in i915_active that was fixed two weeks later with commit e92eb246feb9 ("drm/i915/active: Fix missing debug object activation"). A VMA associated with a request doesn't acquire a GT wakeref by itself. Instead, it depends on a wakeref held directly by the request's active intel_context for a GT associated with its VM, and indirectly on that intel_context's engine wakeref if the engine belongs to the same GT as the VMA's VM. Those wakerefs are released asynchronously to VMA deactivation. Fix the issue by getting a wakeref for the VMA's GT when activating it, and putting that wakeref only after the VMA is deactivated. However, exclude global GTT from that processing path, otherwise the GPU never goes idle. Since __i915_vma_retire() may be called from atomic contexts, use async variant of wakeref put. Also, to avoid circular locking dependency, take care of acquiring the wakeref before VM mutex when both are needed. v7: Add inline comments with justifications for: - using untracked variants of intel_gt_pm_get/put() (Nirmoy), - using async variant of _put(), - not getting the wakeref in case of a global GTT, - always getting the first wakeref outside vm->mutex. v6: Since __i915_vma_active/retire() callbacks are not serialized, storing a wakeref tracking handle inside struct i915_vma is not safe, and there is no other good place for that. Use untracked variants of intel_gt_pm_get/put_async(). v5: Replace "tile" with "GT" across commit description (Rodrigo), - ---truncated---

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2024-26939 since 02/19/2024. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 01/26/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 207773 (Oracle Linux 8 : kernel (ELSA-2024-7000)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.88, 6.6.29, 6.8.3 or 6.9-rc2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 704edc9252f4/5e3eb862df9f/59b2626dd8c8/0e45882ca829 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.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (207773) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-1008). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Oracle VM
• EMC Avamar
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker
• IBM Security Guardium
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Broadcom Brocade SANnav
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM Business Automation Workflow
• IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
• Dell Avamar
• Juniper Junos Space
• IBM DataPower Gateway
• IBM Storage Scale System
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell PowerScale OneFS

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.1.64
• 6.1.65
• 6.1.66
• 6.1.67
• 6.1.68
• 6.1.69
• 6.1.70
• 6.1.71
• 6.1.72
• 6.1.73
• 6.1.74
• 6.1.75
• 6.1.76
• 6.1.77
• 6.1.78
• 6.1.79
• 6.1.80
• 6.1.81
• 6.1.82
• 6.1.83
• 6.1.84
• 6.1.85
• 6.1.86
• 6.1.87
• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.8.0
• 6.8.1
• 6.8.2
• 6.9-rc1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion