CVE-2023-52523 bpf, sockmap: Reject sk_msg egress redirects to non-TCP sockets

High 7.8 Published Updated

A local attacker can crash the Linux kernel by redirecting BPF sk_msg egress to a non-TCP socket, causing a null pointer dereference.

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-2023-52523?

CVE-2023-52523 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 Mar 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:

bpf, sockmap: Reject sk_msg egress redirects to non-TCP sockets

With a SOCKMAP/SOCKHASH map and an sk_msg program user can steer messages sent from one TCP socket (s1) to actually egress from another TCP socket (s2):

tcp_bpf_sendmsg(s1) // = sk_prot->sendmsg tcp_bpf_send_verdict(s1) // __SK_REDIRECT case tcp_bpf_sendmsg_redir(s2) tcp_bpf_push_locked(s2) tcp_bpf_push(s2) tcp_rate_check_app_limited(s2) // expects tcp_sock tcp_sendmsg_locked(s2) // ditto

There is a hard-coded assumption in the call-chain, that the egress socket (s2) is a TCP socket.

However in commit 122e6c79efe1 ("sock_map: Update sock type checks for UDP") we have enabled redirects to non-TCP sockets. This was done for the sake of BPF sk_skb programs. There was no indention to support sk_msg send-to-egress use case.

As a result, attempts to send-to-egress through a non-TCP socket lead to a crash due to invalid downcast from sock to tcp_sock:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000002f ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0x60/0x70 ? __die+0x1f/0x70 ? page_fault_oops+0x80/0x160 ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2d7/0x800 ? rcu_is_watching+0x11/0x50 ? exc_page_fault+0x70/0x1c0 ? asm_exc_page_fault+0x27/0x30 ? tcp_tso_segs+0x14/0xa0 tcp_write_xmit+0x67/0xce0 __tcp_push_pending_frames+0x32/0xf0 tcp_push+0x107/0x140 tcp_sendmsg_locked+0x99f/0xbb0 tcp_bpf_push+0x19d/0x3a0 tcp_bpf_sendmsg_redir+0x55/0xd0 tcp_bpf_send_verdict+0x407/0x550 tcp_bpf_sendmsg+0x1a1/0x390 inet_sendmsg+0x6a/0x70 sock_sendmsg+0x9d/0xc0 ? sockfd_lookup_light+0x12/0x80 __sys_sendto+0x10e/0x160 ? syscall_enter_from_user_mode+0x20/0x60 ? __this_cpu_preempt_check+0x13/0x20 ? lockdep_hardirqs_on+0x82/0x110 __x64_sys_sendto+0x1f/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

Reject selecting a non-TCP sockets as redirect target from a BPF sk_msg program to prevent the crash. When attempted, user will receive an EACCES error from send/sendto/sendmsg() syscall.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52523?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-52523?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-52523 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52523 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-52523, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52523, GHSA-fh4f-4w54-vgrf, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52523.

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