CVE-2021-47118

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

pid: take a reference when initializing `cad_pid`

During boot, kernel_init_freeable() initializes `cad_pid` to the init
task's struct pid.  Later on, we may change `cad_pid` via a sysctl, and
when this happens proc_do_cad_pid() will increment the refcount on the
new pid via get_pid(), and will decrement the refcount on the old pid
via put_pid().  As we never called get_pid() when we initialized
`cad_pid`, we decrement a reference we never incremented, can therefore
free the init task's struct pid early.  As there can be dangling
references to the struct pid, we can later encounter a use-after-free
(e.g.  when delivering signals).

This was spotted when fuzzing v5.13-rc3 with Syzkaller, but seems to
have been around since the conversion of `cad_pid` to struct pid in
commit 9ec52099e4b8 ("[PATCH] replace cad_pid by a struct pid") from the
pre-KASAN stone age of v2.6.19.

Fix this by getting a reference to the init task's struct pid when we
assign it to `cad_pid`.

Full KASAN splat below.

   ==================================================================
   BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in ns_of_pid include/linux/pid.h:153 [inline]
   BUG: KASAN: use-after-free in task_active_pid_ns+0xc0/0xc8 kernel/pid.c:509
   Read of size 4 at addr ffff23794dda0004 by task syz-executor.0/273

   CPU: 1 PID: 273 Comm: syz-executor.0 Not tainted 5.12.0-00001-g9aef892b2d15 #1
   Hardware name: linux,dummy-virt (DT)
   Call trace:
    ns_of_pid include/linux/pid.h:153 [inline]
    task_active_pid_ns+0xc0/0xc8 kernel/pid.c:509
    do_notify_parent+0x308/0xe60 kernel/signal.c:1950
    exit_notify kernel/exit.c:682 [inline]
    do_exit+0x2334/0x2bd0 kernel/exit.c:845
    do_group_exit+0x108/0x2c8 kernel/exit.c:922
    get_signal+0x4e4/0x2a88 kernel/signal.c:2781
    do_signal arch/arm64/kernel/signal.c:882 [inline]
    do_notify_resume+0x300/0x970 arch/arm64/kernel/signal.c:936
    work_pending+0xc/0x2dc

   Allocated by task 0:
    slab_post_alloc_hook+0x50/0x5c0 mm/slab.h:516
    slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:2907 [inline]
    slab_alloc mm/slub.c:2915 [inline]
    kmem_cache_alloc+0x1f4/0x4c0 mm/slub.c:2920
    alloc_pid+0xdc/0xc00 kernel/pid.c:180
    copy_process+0x2794/0x5e18 kernel/fork.c:2129
    kernel_clone+0x194/0x13c8 kernel/fork.c:2500
    kernel_thread+0xd4/0x110 kernel/fork.c:2552
    rest_init+0x44/0x4a0 init/main.c:687
    arch_call_rest_init+0x1c/0x28
    start_kernel+0x520/0x554 init/main.c:1064
    0x0

   Freed by task 270:
    slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:1562 [inline]
    slab_free_freelist_hook+0x98/0x260 mm/slub.c:1600
    slab_free mm/slub.c:3161 [inline]
    kmem_cache_free+0x224/0x8e0 mm/slub.c:3177
    put_pid.part.4+0xe0/0x1a8 kernel/pid.c:114
    put_pid+0x30/0x48 kernel/pid.c:109
    proc_do_cad_pid+0x190/0x1b0 kernel/sysctl.c:1401
    proc_sys_call_handler+0x338/0x4b0 fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c:591
    proc_sys_write+0x34/0x48 fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c:617
    call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:1977 [inline]
    new_sync_write+0x3ac/0x510 fs/read_write.c:518
    vfs_write fs/read_write.c:605 [inline]
    vfs_write+0x9c4/0x1018 fs/read_write.c:585
    ksys_write+0x124/0x240 fs/read_write.c:658
    __do_sys_write fs/read_write.c:670 [inline]
    __se_sys_write fs/read_write.c:667 [inline]
    __arm64_sys_write+0x78/0xb0 fs/read_write.c:667
    __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:37 [inline]
    invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:49 [inline]
    el0_svc_common.constprop.1+0x16c/0x388 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:129
    do_el0_svc+0xf8/0x150 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:168
    el0_svc+0x28/0x38 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:416
    el0_sync_handler+0x134/0x180 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:432
    el0_sync+0x154/0x180 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:701

   The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff23794dda0000
    which belongs to the cache pid of size 224
   The buggy address is located 4 bytes inside of
    224-byte region [ff
---truncated---
ProviderTypeBase ScoreAtk. VectorAtk. ComplexityPriv. RequiredVector
NISTNIST
7.8 HIGH
LOCAL
LOW
LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
LinuxCNA
---
---
CVEADP
---
---
CISA-ADPADP
---
---
Base Score
CVSS 3.x
EPSS Score
Percentile: 1%
VendorProductVersion
linuxlinux_kernel
2.6.19 ≤
𝑥
< 4.4.272
linuxlinux_kernel
4.5 ≤
𝑥
< 4.9.272
linuxlinux_kernel
4.10 ≤
𝑥
< 4.14.236
linuxlinux_kernel
4.15 ≤
𝑥
< 4.19.194
linuxlinux_kernel
4.20 ≤
𝑥
< 5.4.125
linuxlinux_kernel
5.5 ≤
𝑥
< 5.10.43
linuxlinux_kernel
5.11 ≤
𝑥
< 5.12.10
linuxlinux_kernel
5.13:rc1
linuxlinux_kernel
5.13:rc2
linuxlinux_kernel
5.13:rc3
linuxlinux_kernel
5.13:rc4
𝑥
= Vulnerable software versions
Debian logo
Debian Releases
Debian Product
Codename
linux
bullseye
5.10.223-1
fixed
bullseye (security)
5.10.226-1
fixed
bookworm
6.1.106-3
fixed
bookworm (security)
6.1.112-1
fixed
trixie
6.11.5-1
fixed
sid
6.11.6-1
fixed
Ubuntu logo
Ubuntu Releases
Ubuntu Product
Codename
linux
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-81.91
released
bionic
pending
xenial
ignored
trusty
ignored
linux-allwinner-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-aws
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1055.58
released
bionic
pending
xenial
ignored
trusty
ignored
linux-aws-5.0
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-aws-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-aws-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-aws-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-aws-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-aws-5.3
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-aws-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-aws-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-aws-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-aws-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-aws-fips
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-aws-hwe
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
xenial
Fixed 4.15.0-1110.117~16.04.1
released
linux-azure
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1056.58
released
bionic
ignored
xenial
Fixed 4.15.0-1122.135~16.04.1
released
trusty
Fixed 4.15.0-1122.135~14.04.1
released
linux-azure-4.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-azure-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-azure-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-azure-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-azure-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-azure-5.3
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-azure-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-azure-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-azure-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-azure-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-azure-edge
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-azure-fde
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
ignored
linux-azure-fde-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-azure-fde-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-azure-fde-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-azure-fips
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-bluefield
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1019.22
released
linux-fips
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
linux-gcp
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1051.55
released
bionic
ignored
xenial
Fixed 4.15.0-1107.121~16.04.1
released
linux-gcp-4.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-gcp-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-gcp-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-gcp-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-gcp-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-gcp-5.3
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-gcp-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-gcp-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-gcp-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-gcp-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-gcp-fips
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-gke
noble
not-affected
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
ignored
linux-gke-4.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-gke-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-gke-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-gkeop
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1022.23
released
linux-gkeop-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-gkeop-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-hwe
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
xenial
Fixed 4.15.0-154.161~16.04.1
released
linux-hwe-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-hwe-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-hwe-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-hwe-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-hwe-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-hwe-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-hwe-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-hwe-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-hwe-6.8
noble
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-hwe-edge
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
xenial
ignored
linux-ibm
noble
not-affected
mantic
ignored
jammy
not-affected
focal
not-affected
linux-ibm-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-ibm-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
not-affected
linux-intel
noble
not-affected
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-intel-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-intel-iot-realtime
noble
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-intel-iotg
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-intel-iotg-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-iot
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-kvm
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1045.47
released
bionic
pending
xenial
ignored
linux-laptop
noble
dne
mantic
not-affected
jammy
dne
focal
dne
linux-lowlatency
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8
noble
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-lts-xenial
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
trusty
ignored
linux-nvidia
noble
not-affected
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-nvidia-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-nvidia-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-nvidia-6.8
noble
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-nvidia-lowlatency
noble
not-affected
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-oem
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-oem-5.10
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oem-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oem-5.14
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oem-5.17
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-oem-5.6
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oem-6.0
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-oem-6.1
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-oem-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-oem-6.8
noble
not-affected
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-oracle
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1053.57
released
bionic
pending
xenial
Fixed 4.15.0-1079.87~16.04.1
released
linux-oracle-5.0
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-oracle-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oracle-5.13
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oracle-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-oracle-5.3
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
ignored
linux-oracle-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-oracle-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-oracle-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-raspi
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
not-affected
focal
Fixed 5.4.0-1042.46
released
linux-raspi-5.4
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
pending
linux-raspi-realtime
noble
dne
jammy
dne
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-raspi2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-realtime
noble
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-riscv
noble
not-affected
mantic
not-affected
jammy
ignored
focal
ignored
linux-riscv-5.11
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-riscv-5.15
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
not-affected
linux-riscv-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-riscv-5.8
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
dne
focal
ignored
linux-riscv-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-riscv-6.8
noble
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
bionic
dne
xenial
dne
trusty
dne
linux-starfive
noble
dne
mantic
not-affected
jammy
dne
focal
dne
linux-starfive-5.19
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-starfive-6.2
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
ignored
focal
dne
linux-starfive-6.5
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
dne
linux-xilinx-zynqmp
noble
dne
mantic
dne
jammy
not-affected
focal
not-affected