NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting kernel-core package, versions *

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-core package and not the kernel-core package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

tipc: Change nla_policy for bearer-related names to NLA_NUL_STRING

syzbot reported the following uninit-value access issue [1]:

===================================================== BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in strlen lib/string.c:418 [inline] BUG: KMSAN: uninit-value in strstr+0xb8/0x2f0 lib/string.c:756 strlen lib/string.c:418 [inline] strstr+0xb8/0x2f0 lib/string.c:756 tipc_nl_node_reset_link_stats+0x3ea/0xb50 net/tipc/node.c:2595 genl_family_rcv_msg_doit net/netlink/genetlink.c:971 [inline] genl_family_rcv_msg net/netlink/genetlink.c:1051 [inline] genl_rcv_msg+0x11ec/0x1290 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1066 netlink_rcv_skb+0x371/0x650 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:2545 genl_rcv+0x40/0x60 net/netlink/genetlink.c:1075 netlink_unicast_kernel net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1342 [inline] netlink_unicast+0xf47/0x1250 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1368 netlink_sendmsg+0x1238/0x13d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1910 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:730 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:753 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x9c2/0xd60 net/socket.c:2541 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2595 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2624 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2633 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2631 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x307/0x490 net/socket.c:2631 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Uninit was created at: slab_post_alloc_hook+0x12f/0xb70 mm/slab.h:767 slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:3478 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x577/0xa80 mm/slub.c:3523 kmalloc_reserve+0x13d/0x4a0 net/core/skbuff.c:559 __alloc_skb+0x318/0x740 net/core/skbuff.c:650 alloc_skb include/linux/skbuff.h:1286 [inline] netlink_alloc_large_skb net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1214 [inline] netlink_sendmsg+0xb34/0x13d0 net/netlink/af_netlink.c:1885 sock_sendmsg_nosec net/socket.c:730 [inline] sock_sendmsg net/socket.c:753 [inline] ____sys_sendmsg+0x9c2/0xd60 net/socket.c:2541 ___sys_sendmsg+0x28d/0x3c0 net/socket.c:2595 __sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2624 [inline] __do_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2633 [inline] __se_sys_sendmsg net/socket.c:2631 [inline] __x64_sys_sendmsg+0x307/0x490 net/socket.c:2631 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

TIPC bearer-related names including link names must be null-terminated strings. If a link name which is not null-terminated is passed through netlink, strstr() and similar functions can cause buffer overrun. This causes the above issue.

This patch changes the nla_policy for bearer-related names from NLA_STRING to NLA_NUL_STRING. This resolves the issue by ensuring that only null-terminated strings are accepted as bearer-related names.

syzbot reported similar uninit-value issue related to bearer names [2]. The root cause of this issue is that a non-null-terminated bearer name was passed. This patch also resolved this issue.

• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-52845
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/19b3f72a41a8751e26bffc093bb7e1cef29ad579
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2199260c42e6fbc5af8adae3bf78e623407c91b0
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2426425d686b43adbc4f2f4a367b494f06f159d6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3907b89cd17fcc23e9a80789c36856f00ece0ba8
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4c731e98fe4d678e87ba3e4d45d3cf0a5a193dc4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/560992f41c0cea44b7603bc9e6c73bffbf6b5709
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6744008c354bca2e4686a5b6056ee6b535d9f67d
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/abc1582119e8c4af14cedb0db6541fd603f45a04
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b33d130f07f1decd756b849ab03c23d11d4dd294