CVE-2023-53007

About vulnerability

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Make sure trace_printk() can output as soon as it can be used

Currently trace_printk() can be used as soon as early_trace_init() is called from start_kernel(). But if a crash happens, and “ftrace_dump_on_oops” is set on the kernel command line, all you get will be:

[ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 347519us : Unknown type 6 [ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 353141us : Unknown type 6 [ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 358684us : Unknown type 6

This is because the trace_printk() event (type 6) hasn’t been registered yet. That gets done via an early_initcall(), which may be early, but not early enough.

Instead of registering the trace_printk() event (and other ftrace events, which are not trace events) via an early_initcall(), have them registered at the same time that trace_printk() can be used. This way, if there is a crash before early_initcall(), then the trace_printk()s will actually be useful.

Affected product:

AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS

Affected packages:

kernel @ 4.18.0 (+8 more)

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

tracing: Make sure trace_printk() can output as soon as it can be used

Currently trace_printk() can be used as soon as early_trace_init() is called from start_kernel(). But if a crash happens, and “ftrace_dump_on_oops” is set on the kernel command line, all you get will be:

[ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 347519us : Unknown type 6 [ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 353141us : Unknown type 6 [ 0.456075] -0 0dN.2. 358684us : Unknown type 6

This is because the trace_printk() event (type 6) hasn’t been registered yet. That gets done via an early_initcall(), which may be early, but not early enough.

Instead of registering the trace_printk() event (and other ftrace events, which are not trace events) via an early_initcall(), have them registered at the same time that trace_printk() can be used. This way, if there is a crash before early_initcall(), then the trace_printk()s will actually be useful.