mm/slab_common: slab_caches list corruption after kmem_cache_destroy()
CVE: CVE-2023-52562
Component: kernel
CWE: CWE-401
Severity: Low
CVSS v3: 5.6/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Release date: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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

mm/slab_common: fix slab_caches list corruption after kmem_cache_destroy()

After the commit in Fixes:, if a module that created a slab cache does not
release all of its allocated objects before destroying the cache (at rmmod
time), we might end up releasing the kmem_cache object without removing it
from the slab_caches list thus corrupting the list as kmem_cache_destroy()
ignores the return value from shutdown_cache(), which in turn never removes
the kmem_cache object from slabs_list in case __kmem_cache_shutdown() fails
to release all of the cache's slabs.

This is easily observable on a kernel built with CONFIG_DEBUG_LIST=y
as after that ill release the system will immediately trip on list_add,
or list_del, assertions similar to the one shown below as soon as another
kmem_cache gets created, or destroyed:

  [ 1041.213632] list_del corruption. next->prev should be ffff89f596fb5768, but was 52f1e5016aeee75d. (next=ffff89f595a1b268)
  [ 1041.219165] ------------[ cut here ]------------
  [ 1041.221517] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:62!
  [ 1041.223452] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
  [ 1041.225408] CPU: 2 PID: 1852 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Tainted: G    B   W  OE      6.5.0 #15
  [ 1041.228244] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20230524-3.fc37 05/24/2023
  [ 1041.231212] RIP: 0010:__list_del_entry_valid+0xae/0xb0

Another quick way to trigger this issue, in a kernel with CONFIG_SLUB=y,
is to set slub_debug to poison the released objects and then just run
cat /proc/slabinfo after removing the module that leaks slab objects,
in which case the kernel will panic:

  [   50.954843] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xa56b6b6b6b6b6b8b: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
  [   50.961545] CPU: 2 PID: 1495 Comm: cat Kdump: loaded Tainted: G    B   W  OE      6.5.0 #15
  [   50.966808] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS edk2-20230524-3.fc37 05/24/2023
  [   50.972663] RIP: 0010:get_slabinfo+0x42/0xf0

This patch fixes this issue by properly checking shutdown_cache()'s
return value before taking the kmem_cache_release() branch.


Remediation:
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 container images provided by this update can be downloaded from the Red Hat Container Registry at registry.access.redhat.com. Installation instructions for your platform are available at Red Hat Container Catalog (see References).

Dockerfiles and scripts should be amended either to refer to this new image specifically, or to the latest image generally.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.