Linux Kernel up to 6.8.9 accept_memory denial of service

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as problematic has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.8.9. Affected by this issue is the function accept_memory. Such manipulation leads to denial of service. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2024-36936. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.8.9. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function accept_memory. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a denial of service vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-404. The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: efi/unaccepted: touch soft lockup during memory accept Commit 50e782a86c98 ("efi/unaccepted: Fix soft lockups caused by parallel memory acceptance") has released the spinlock so other CPUs can do memory acceptance in parallel and not triggers softlockup on other CPUs. However the softlock up was intermittent shown up if the memory of the TD guest is large, and the timeout of softlockup is set to 1 second: RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore Call Trace: ? __hrtimer_run_queues ? hrtimer_interrupt ? watchdog_timer_fn ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? __pfx_watchdog_timer_fn ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? __hrtimer_run_queues ? hrtimer_interrupt ? asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt accept_memory try_to_accept_memory do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page get_page_from_freelist __handle_mm_fault __alloc_pages __folio_alloc ? __tdx_hypercall handle_mm_fault vma_alloc_folio do_user_addr_fault do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page exc_page_fault ? __do_huge_pmd_anonymous_page asm_exc_page_fault __handle_mm_fault When the local irq is enabled at the end of accept_memory(), the softlockup detects that the watchdog on single CPU has not been fed for a while. That is to say, even other CPUs will not be blocked by spinlock, the current CPU might be stunk with local irq disabled for a while, which hurts not only nmi watchdog but also softlockup. Chao Gao pointed out that the memory accept could be time costly and there was similar report before. Thus to avoid any softlocup detection during this stage, give the softlockup a flag to skip the timeout check at the end of accept_memory(), by invoking touch_softlockup_watchdog().

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-36936 since 05/30/2024. The exploitation is known to be easy. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 207884 (openSUSE 15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2024:3483-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.8.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 781e34b73601/1c5a1627f481 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 Tenable (207884). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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