NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-doc package, versions <0:4.18.0-372.9.1.el8


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating

    Threat Intelligence

    EPSS
    0.04% (11th percentile)

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  • Snyk ID SNYK-RHEL8-KERNELDOC-8165911
  • published 8 Oct 2024
  • disclosed 24 May 2024

How to fix?

Upgrade RHEL:8 kernel-doc to version 0:4.18.0-372.9.1.el8 or higher.
This issue was patched in RHSA-2022:1988.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-doc package and not the kernel-doc package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:8 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

ethtool: ioctl: fix potential NULL deref in ethtool_set_coalesce()

ethtool_set_coalesce() now uses both the .get_coalesce() and .set_coalesce() callbacks. But the check for their availability is buggy, so changing the coalesce settings on a device where the driver provides only one of the callbacks results in a NULL pointer dereference instead of an -EOPNOTSUPP.

Fix the condition so that the availability of both callbacks is ensured. This also matches the netlink code.

Note that reproducing this requires some effort - it only affects the legacy ioctl path, and needs a specific combination of driver options:

  • have .get_coalesce() and .coalesce_supported but no .set_coalesce(), or
  • have .set_coalesce() but no .get_coalesce(). Here eg. ethtool doesn't cause the crash as it first attempts to call ethtool_get_coalesce() and bails out on error.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1
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NVD

5.5 medium
  • Attack Vector (AV)
    Local
  • Attack Complexity (AC)
    Low
  • Privileges Required (PR)
    Low
  • User Interaction (UI)
    None
  • Scope (S)
    Unchanged
  • Confidentiality (C)
    None
  • Integrity (I)
    None
  • Availability (A)
    High
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Red Hat

4.7 medium
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SUSE

5.5 medium