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:

cachefiles: fix slab-use-after-free in cachefiles_withdraw_cookie()

We got the following issue in our fault injection stress test:

================================================================== BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in cachefiles_withdraw_cookie+0x4d9/0x600 Read of size 8 at addr ffff888118efc000 by task kworker/u78:0/109

CPU: 13 PID: 109 Comm: kworker/u78:0 Not tainted 6.8.0-dirty #566 Call Trace: <TASK> kasan_report+0x93/0xc0 cachefiles_withdraw_cookie+0x4d9/0x600 fscache_cookie_state_machine+0x5c8/0x1230 fscache_cookie_worker+0x91/0x1c0 process_one_work+0x7fa/0x1800 [...]

Allocated by task 117: kmalloc_trace+0x1b3/0x3c0 cachefiles_acquire_volume+0xf3/0x9c0 fscache_create_volume_work+0x97/0x150 process_one_work+0x7fa/0x1800 [...]

Freed by task 120301: kfree+0xf1/0x2c0 cachefiles_withdraw_cache+0x3fa/0x920 cachefiles_put_unbind_pincount+0x1f6/0x250 cachefiles_daemon_release+0x13b/0x290 __fput+0x204/0xa00 task_work_run+0x139/0x230 do_exit+0x87a/0x29b0 [...]

Following is the process that triggers the issue:

       p1                |             p2

---

                          fscache_begin_lookup
                           fscache_begin_volume_access
                            fscache_cache_is_live(fscache_cache)

cachefiles_daemon_release cachefiles_put_unbind_pincount cachefiles_daemon_unbind cachefiles_withdraw_cache fscache_withdraw_cache fscache_set_cache_state(cache, FSCACHE_CACHE_IS_WITHDRAWN); cachefiles_withdraw_objects(cache) fscache_wait_for_objects(fscache) atomic_read(&fscache_cache->object_count) == 0 fscache_perform_lookup cachefiles_lookup_cookie cachefiles_alloc_object refcount_set(&object->ref, 1); object->volume = volume fscache_count_object(vcookie->cache); atomic_inc(&fscache_cache->object_count) cachefiles_withdraw_volumes cachefiles_withdraw_volume fscache_withdraw_volume __cachefiles_free_volume kfree(cachefiles_volume) fscache_cookie_state_machine cachefiles_withdraw_cookie cache = object->volume->cache; // cachefiles_volume UAF !!!

After setting FSCACHE_CACHE_IS_WITHDRAWN, wait for all the cookie lookups to complete first, and then wait for fscache_cache->object_count == 0 to avoid the cookie exiting after the volume has been freed and triggering the above issue. Therefore call fscache_withdraw_volume() before calling cachefiles_withdraw_objects().

This way, after setting FSCACHE_CACHE_IS_WITHDRAWN, only the following two cases will occur:

1. fscache_begin_lookup fails in fscache_begin_volume_access().
2. fscache_withdraw_volume() will ensure that fscache_count_object() has been executed before calling fscache_wait_for_objects().

• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-41057
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d8f805789072ea7fd39504694b7bd17e5f751c4
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8de253177112a47c9af157d23ae934779188b4e1
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e67589a4a7b7e5660b524d1d5fe61242bcbcc11
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ef81340401e8a371d6b17f69e76d861920972cfe