Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6 fork dup_userfaultfd_complete reference count

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6. This affects the function dup_userfaultfd_complete of the component fork. Performing a manipulation results in reference count. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2024-50220. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.11.6. This affects the function dup_userfaultfd_complete of the component fork. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a reference count vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-911. The product uses a reference count to manage a resource, but it does not update or incorrectly updates the reference count. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fork: do not invoke uffd on fork if error occurs Patch series "fork: do not expose incomplete mm on fork". During fork we may place the virtual memory address space into an inconsistent state before the fork operation is complete. In addition, we may encounter an error during the fork operation that indicates that the virtual memory address space is invalidated. As a result, we should not be exposing it in any way to external machinery that might interact with the mm or VMAs, machinery that is not designed to deal with incomplete state. We specifically update the fork logic to defer khugepaged and ksm to the end of the operation and only to be invoked if no error arose, and disallow uffd from observing fork events should an error have occurred. This patch (of 2): Currently on fork we expose the virtual address space of a process to userland unconditionally if uffd is registered in VMAs, regardless of whether an error arose in the fork. This is performed in dup_userfaultfd_complete() which is invoked unconditionally, and performs two duties - invoking registered handlers for the UFFD_EVENT_FORK event via dup_fctx(), and clearing down userfaultfd_fork_ctx objects established in dup_userfaultfd(). This is problematic, because the virtual address space may not yet be correctly initialised if an error arose. The change in commit d24062914837 ("fork: use __mt_dup() to duplicate maple tree in dup_mmap()") makes this more pertinent as we may be in a state where entries in the maple tree are not yet consistent. We address this by, on fork error, ensuring that we roll back state that we would otherwise expect to clean up through the event being handled by userland and perform the memory freeing duty otherwise performed by dup_userfaultfd_complete(). We do this by implementing a new function, dup_userfaultfd_fail(), which performs the same loop, only decrementing reference counts. Note that we perform mmgrab() on the parent and child mm's, however userfaultfd_ctx_put() will mmdrop() this once the reference count drops to zero, so we will avoid memory leaks correctly here.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2024-50220 since 10/21/2024. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 216493 (Ubuntu 24.10 : Linux kernel vulnerabilities (USN-7276-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.11.7 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 92b472945dbf/f64e67e5d3a4 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 (216493) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2024-3397). Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• Open Source eCryptfs
• Siemens SIMATIC S7
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.11.0
• 6.11.1
• 6.11.2
• 6.11.3
• 6.11.4
• 6.11.5
• 6.11.6

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

Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

Discussion