CVE-2024-56559 (Low severity, published 2024-12-26)
CVSS score: 4.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

mm/vmalloc: combine all TLB flush operations of KASAN shadow virtual address into one operation

When compiling kernel source 'make -j $(nproc)' with the up-and-running
KASAN-enabled kernel on a 256-core machine, the following soft lockup is
shown:

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#28 stuck for 22s! [kworker/28:1:1760]
CPU: 28 PID: 1760 Comm: kworker/28:1 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.10.0-rc5 #95
Workqueue: events drain_vmap_area_work
RIP: 0010:smp_call_function_many_cond+0x1d8/0xbb0
Code: 38 c8 7c 08 84 c9 0f 85 49 08 00 00 8b 45 08 a8 01 74 2e 48 89 f1 49 89 f7 48 c1 e9 03 41 83 e7 07 4c 01 e9 41 83 c7 03 f3 90 <0f> b6 01 41 38 c7 7c 08 84 c0 0f 85 d4 06 00 00 8b 45 08 a8 01 75
RSP: 0018:ffffc9000cb3fb60 EFLAGS: 00000202
RAX: 0000000000000011 RBX: ffff8883bc4469c0 RCX: ffffed10776e9949
RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: ffff8883bb74ca48 RDI: ffffffff8434dc50
RBP: ffff8883bb74ca40 R08: ffff888103585dc0 R09: ffff8884533a1800
R10: 0000000000000004 R11: ffffffffffffffff R12: ffffed1077888d39
R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: ffffed1077888d38 R15: 0000000000000003
FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8883bc400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00005577b5c8d158 CR3: 0000000004850000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0
Call Trace:
 <IRQ>
 ? watchdog_timer_fn+0x2cd/0x390
 ? __pfx_watchdog_timer_fn+0x10/0x10
 ? __hrtimer_run_queues+0x300/0x6d0
 ? sched_clock_cpu+0x69/0x4e0
 ? __pfx___hrtimer_run_queues+0x10/0x10
 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
 ? ktime_get_update_offsets_now+0x7f/0x2a0
 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
 ? hrtimer_interrupt+0x2ca/0x760
 ? __sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x8c/0x2b0
 ? sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x6a/0x90
 </IRQ>
 <TASK>
 ? asm_sysvec_apic_timer_interrupt+0x16/0x20
 ? smp_call_function_many_cond+0x1d8/0xbb0
 ? __pfx_do_kernel_range_flush+0x10/0x10
 on_each_cpu_cond_mask+0x20/0x40
 flush_tlb_kernel_range+0x19b/0x250
 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
 ? kasan_release_vmalloc+0xa7/0xc0
 purge_vmap_node+0x357/0x820
 ? __pfx_purge_vmap_node+0x10/0x10
 __purge_vmap_area_lazy+0x5b8/0xa10
 drain_vmap_area_work+0x21/0x30
 process_one_work+0x661/0x10b0
 worker_thread+0x844/0x10e0
 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f
 ? __kthread_parkme+0x82/0x140
 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10
 kthread+0x2a5/0x370
 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
 ret_from_fork+0x30/0x70
 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
 </TASK>

Debugging Analysis:

  1. The following ftrace log shows that the lockup CPU spends too much
     time iterating vmap_nodes and flushing TLB when purging vm_area
     structures. (Some info is trimmed).

     kworker: funcgraph_entry:              |  drain_vmap_area_work() {
     kworker: funcgraph_entry:              |   mutex_lock() {
     kworker: funcgraph_entry:  1.092 us    |     __cond_resched();
     kworker: funcgraph_exit:   3.306 us    |   }
     ...                                        ...
     kworker: funcgraph_entry:              |    flush_tlb_kernel_range() {
     ...                                          ...
     kworker: funcgraph_exit: # 7533.649 us |    }
     ...                                         ...
     kworker: funcgraph_entry:  2.344 us    |   mutex_unlock();
     kworker: funcgraph_exit: $ 23871554 us | }

     The drain_vmap_area_work() spends over 23 seconds.

     There are 2805 flush_tlb_kernel_range() calls in the ftrace log.
       * One is called in __purge_vmap_area_lazy().
       * Others are called by purge_vmap_node->kasan_release_vmalloc.
         purge_vmap_node() iteratively releases kasan vmalloc
         allocations and flushes TLB for each vmap_area.
           - [Rough calculation] Each flush_tlb_kernel_range() runs
             about 7.5ms.
               -- 2804 * 7.5ms = 21.03 seconds.
               -- That's why a soft lock is triggered.

  2. Extending the soft lockup time can work around the issue (For example,
     # echo
---truncated---
Statement: The affected code not introduced yet in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The bug happens for specific conditions (when compiling debug kernel for many cores platform). The security impact is limited.