CVE-2021-46997 arm64: entry: always set GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET during entry
A kernel warning triggered by inconsistent interrupt masking states during entry can cause a denial of service when pseudo-NMI support is enabled.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2021-46997?
CVE-2021-46997 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 28 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:
arm64: entry: always set GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET during entry
Zenghui reports that booting a kernel with "irqchip.gicv3_pseudo_nmi=1" on the command line hits a warning during kernel entry, due to the way we manipulate the PMR.
Early in the entry sequence, we call lockdep_hardirqs_off() to inform lockdep that interrupts have been masked (as the HW sets DAIF wqhen entering an exception). Architecturally PMR_EL1 is not affected by exception entry, and we don't set GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET in the PMR early in the exception entry sequence, so early in exception entry the PMR can indicate that interrupts are unmasked even though they are masked by DAIF.
If DEBUG_LOCKDEP is selected, lockdep_hardirqs_off() will check that interrupts are masked, before we set GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET in any of the exception entry paths, and hence lockdep_hardirqs_off() will WARN() that something is amiss.
We can avoid this by consistently setting GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET during exception entry so that kernel code sees a consistent environment. We must also update local_daif_inherit() to undo this, as currently only touches DAIF. For other paths, local_daif_restore() will update both DAIF and the PMR. With this done, we can remove the existing special cases which set this later in the entry code.
We always use (GIC_PRIO_IRQON | GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET) for consistency with local_daif_save(), as this will warn if it ever encounters (GIC_PRIO_IRQOFF | GIC_PRIO_PSR_I_SET), and never sets this itself. This matches the gic_prio_kentry_setup that we have to retain for ret_to_user.
The original splat from Zenghui's report was:
| DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON(!irqs_disabled()) | WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 125 at kernel/locking/lockdep.c:4258 lockdep_hardirqs_off+0xd4/0xe8 | Modules linked in: | CPU: 3 PID: 125 Comm: modprobe Tainted: G W 5.12.0-rc8+ #463 | Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS 0.0.0 02/06/2015 | pstate: 604003c5 (nZCv DAIF +PAN -UAO -TCO BTYPE=--) | pc : lockdep_hardirqs_off+0xd4/0xe8 | lr : lockdep_hardirqs_off+0xd4/0xe8 | sp : ffff80002a39bad0 | pmr_save: 000000e0 | x29: ffff80002a39bad0 x28: ffff0000de214bc0 | x27: ffff0000de1c0400 x26: 000000000049b328 | x25: 0000000000406f30 x24: ffff0000de1c00a0 | x23: 0000000020400005 x22: ffff8000105f747c | x21: 0000000096000044 x20: 0000000000498ef9 | x19: ffff80002a39bc88 x18: ffffffffffffffff | x17: 0000000000000000 x16: ffff800011c61eb0 | x15: ffff800011700a88 x14: 0720072007200720 | x13: 0720072007200720 x12: 0720072007200720 | x11: 0720072007200720 x10: 0720072007200720 | x9 : ffff80002a39bad0 x8 : ffff80002a39bad0 | x7 : ffff8000119f0800 x6 : c0000000ffff7fff | x5 : ffff8000119f07a8 x4 : 0000000000000001 | x3 : 9bcdab23f2432800 x2 : ffff800011730538 | x1 : 9bcdab23f2432800 x0 : 0000000000000000 | Call trace: | lockdep_hardirqs_off+0xd4/0xe8 | enter_from_kernel_mode.isra.5+0x7c/0xa8 | el1_abort+0x24/0x100 | el1_sync_handler+0x80/0xd0 | el1_sync+0x6c/0x100 | __arch_clear_user+0xc/0x90 | load_elf_binary+0x9fc/0x1450 | bprm_execve+0x404/0x880 | kernel_execve+0x180/0x188 | call_usermodehelper_exec_async+0xdc/0x158 | ret_from_fork+0x10/0x18
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-46997?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2021-46997?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2021-46997 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-46997 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46997, GHSA-9p5f-hx26-h2xq, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46997.