Linux Kernel up to 6.6.30/6.8.9 workqueue kick_pool null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.30/6.8.9 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function kick_pool of the component workqueue. Performing a manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2024-36888. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.30/6.8.9. This affects the function kick_pool of the component workqueue. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: workqueue: Fix selection of wake_cpu in kick_pool() With cpu_possible_mask=0-63 and cpu_online_mask=0-7 the following kernel oops was observed: smp: Bringing up secondary CPUs ... smp: Brought up 1 node, 8 CPUs Unable to handle kernel pointer dereference in virtual kernel address space Failing address: 0000000000000000 TEID: 0000000000000803 [..] Call Trace: arch_vcpu_is_preempted+0x12/0x80 select_idle_sibling+0x42/0x560 select_task_rq_fair+0x29a/0x3b0 try_to_wake_up+0x38e/0x6e0 kick_pool+0xa4/0x198 __queue_work.part.0+0x2bc/0x3a8 call_timer_fn+0x36/0x160 __run_timers+0x1e2/0x328 __run_timer_base+0x5a/0x88 run_timer_softirq+0x40/0x78 __do_softirq+0x118/0x388 irq_exit_rcu+0xc0/0xd8 do_ext_irq+0xae/0x168 ext_int_handler+0xbe/0xf0 psw_idle_exit+0x0/0xc default_idle_call+0x3c/0x110 do_idle+0xd4/0x158 cpu_startup_entry+0x40/0x48 rest_init+0xc6/0xc8 start_kernel+0x3c4/0x5e0 startup_continue+0x3c/0x50 The crash is caused by calling arch_vcpu_is_preempted() for an offline CPU. To avoid this, select the cpu with cpumask_any_and_distribute() to mask __pod_cpumask with cpu_online_mask. In case no cpu is left in the pool, skip the assignment. tj: This doesn't fully fix the bug as CPUs can still go down between picking the target CPU and the wake call. Fixing that likely requires adding cpu_online() test to either the sched or s390 arch code. However, regardless of how that is fixed, workqueue shouldn't be picking a CPU which isn't online as that would result in unpredictable and worse behavior.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-36888. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 6.6.31 or 6.8.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c57824d4fe07/6d559e70b3eb/57a01eafdcf7 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 vulnerability database at CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-1259). 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
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium
• Oracle Linux
• Oracle VM
• NetApp FAS
• EMC Avamar
• NetApp AFF
• Dell NetWorker
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• IBM Security Guardium
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Broadcom Brocade SANnav
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• IBM Business Automation Workflow
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell Avamar
• IBM Storage Scale
• IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
• Juniper Junos Space
• IBM Storage Scale System
• SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.8.0
• 6.8.1
• 6.8.2
• 6.8.3
• 6.8.4
• 6.8.5
• 6.8.6
• 6.8.7
• 6.8.8
• 6.8.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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