CVE-2021-46925 net/smc: fix kernel panic caused by race of smc_sock

What is CVE-2021-46925?

CVE-2021-46925 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

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

net/smc: fix kernel panic caused by race of smc_sock

A crash occurs when smc_cdc_tx_handler() tries to access smc_sock but smc_release() has already freed it.

[ 4570.695099] BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 000000002eae9e88 [ 4570.696048] #PF: supervisor write access in kernel mode [ 4570.696728] #PF: error_code(0x0002) - not-present page [ 4570.697401] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 4570.697716] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI [ 4570.698228] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 5.16.0-rc4+ #111 [ 4570.699013] Hardware name: Alibaba Cloud Alibaba Cloud ECS, BIOS 8c24b4c 04/0 [ 4570.699933] RIP: 0010:_raw_spin_lock+0x1a/0x30 <...> [ 4570.711446] Call Trace: [ 4570.711746] <IRQ> [ 4570.711992] smc_cdc_tx_handler+0x41/0xc0 [ 4570.712470] smc_wr_tx_tasklet_fn+0x213/0x560 [ 4570.712981] ? smc_cdc_tx_dismisser+0x10/0x10 [ 4570.713489] tasklet_action_common.isra.17+0x66/0x140 [ 4570.714083] __do_softirq+0x123/0x2f4 [ 4570.714521] irq_exit_rcu+0xc4/0xf0 [ 4570.714934] common_interrupt+0xba/0xe0

Though smc_cdc_tx_handler() checked the existence of smc connection, smc_release() may have already dismissed and released the smc socket before smc_cdc_tx_handler() further visits it.

smc_cdc_tx_handler() |smc_release() if (!conn) | | |smc_cdc_tx_dismiss_slots() | smc_cdc_tx_dismisser() | |sock_put(&smc->sk) <- last sock_put, | smc_sock freed bh_lock_sock(&smc->sk) (panic) |

To make sure we won't receive any CDC messages after we free the smc_sock, add a refcount on the smc_connection for inflight CDC message(posted to the QP but haven't received related CQE), and don't release the smc_connection until all the inflight CDC messages haven been done, for both success or failed ones.

Using refcount on CDC messages brings another problem: when the link is going to be destroyed, smcr_link_clear() will reset the QP, which then remove all the pending CQEs related to the QP in the CQ. To make sure all the CQEs will always come back so the refcount on the smc_connection can always reach 0, smc_ib_modify_qp_reset() was replaced by smc_ib_modify_qp_error(). And remove the timeout in smc_wr_tx_wait_no_pending_sends() since we need to wait for all pending WQEs done, or we may encounter use-after- free when handling CQEs.

For IB device removal routine, we need to wait for all the QPs on that device been destroyed before we can destroy CQs on the device, or the refcount on smc_connection won't reach 0 and smc_sock cannot be released.

Weakness: CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-46925?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2021-46925?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2021-46925 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-46925 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46925, GHSA-j3g9-72cw-7wcp, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46925.