Overview
About vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
nfsd: provide locking for v4_end_grace
Writing to v4_end_grace can race with server shutdown and result in memory being accessed after it was freed - reclaim_str_hashtbl in particularly.
We cannot hold nfsd_mutex across the nfsd4_end_grace() call as that is held while client_tracking_op->init() is called and that can wait for an upcall to nfsdcltrack which can write to v4_end_grace, resulting in a deadlock.
nfsd4_end_grace() is also called by the landromat work queue and this doesn’t require locking as server shutdown will stop the work and wait for it before freeing anything that nfsd4_end_grace() might access.
However, we must be sure that writing to v4_end_grace doesn’t restart the work item after shutdown has already waited for it. For this we add a new flag protected with nn->client_lock. It is set only while it is safe to make client tracking calls, and v4_end_grace only schedules work while the flag is set with the spinlock held.
So this patch adds a nfsd_net field “client_tracking_active” which is set as described. Another field “grace_end_forced”, is set when v4_end_grace is written. After this is set, and providing client_tracking_active is set, the laundromat is scheduled. This “grace_end_forced” field bypasses other checks for whether the grace period has finished.
This resolves a race which can result in use-after-free.
Details
- 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 (+9 more)
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
nfsd: provide locking for v4_end_grace
Writing to v4_end_grace can race with server shutdown and result in memory being accessed after it was freed - reclaim_str_hashtbl in particularly.
We cannot hold nfsd_mutex across the nfsd4_end_grace() call as that is held while client_tracking_op->init() is called and that can wait for an upcall to nfsdcltrack which can write to v4_end_grace, resulting in a deadlock.
nfsd4_end_grace() is also called by the landromat work queue and this doesn’t require locking as server shutdown will stop the work and wait for it before freeing anything that nfsd4_end_grace() might access.
However, we must be sure that writing to v4_end_grace doesn’t restart the work item after shutdown has already waited for it. For this we add a new flag protected with nn->client_lock. It is set only while it is safe to make client tracking calls, and v4_end_grace only schedules work while the flag is set with the spinlock held.
So this patch adds a nfsd_net field “client_tracking_active” which is set as described. Another field “grace_end_forced”, is set when v4_end_grace is written. After this is set, and providing client_tracking_active is set, the laundromat is scheduled. This “grace_end_forced” field bypasses other checks for whether the grace period has finished.
This resolves a race which can result in use-after-free.