CVE-2021-47369 s390/qeth: fix NULL deref in qeth_clear_working_pool_list()
A NULL pointer dereference in the s390/qeth driver causes a kernel crash when setting a device online under specific error conditions.
- 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-2021-47369?
CVE-2021-47369 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 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:
s390/qeth: fix NULL deref in qeth_clear_working_pool_list()
When qeth_set_online() calls qeth_clear_working_pool_list() to roll back after an error exit from qeth_hardsetup_card(), we are at risk of accessing card->qdio.in_q before it was allocated by qeth_alloc_qdio_queues() via qeth_mpc_initialize().
qeth_clear_working_pool_list() then dereferences NULL, and by writing to queue->bufs[i].pool_entry scribbles all over the CPU's lowcore. Resulting in a crash when those lowcore areas are used next (eg. on the next machine-check interrupt).
Such a scenario would typically happen when the device is first set online and its queues aren't allocated yet. An early IO error or certain misconfigs (eg. mismatched transport mode, bad portno) then cause us to error out from qeth_hardsetup_card() with card->qdio.in_q still being NULL.
Fix it by checking the pointer for NULL before accessing it.
Note that we also have (rare) paths inside qeth_mpc_initialize() where a configuration change can cause us to free the existing queues, expecting that subsequent code will allocate them again. If we then error out before that re-allocation happens, the same bug occurs.
Root-caused-by: Heiko Carstens <[email protected]>
Weakness: CWE-476
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-47369?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2021-47369?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2021-47369 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-47369 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2021-47369, GHSA-hq29-fr4v-2847, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-47369.