CVE-2024-39474 mm/vmalloc: fix vmalloc which may return null if called with __GFP_NOFAIL

Medium 5.5 Published Updated

A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel vmalloc function can cause a system crash when memory allocation fails under specific 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-2024-39474?

CVE-2024-39474 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 5 Jul 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:

mm/vmalloc: fix vmalloc which may return null if called with __GFP_NOFAIL

commit a421ef303008 ("mm: allow !GFP_KERNEL allocations for kvmalloc") includes support for __GFP_NOFAIL, but it presents a conflict with commit dd544141b9eb ("vmalloc: back off when the current task is OOM-killed"). A possible scenario is as follows:

process-a __vmalloc_node_range(GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL) __vmalloc_area_node() vm_area_alloc_pages() --> oom-killer send SIGKILL to process-a if (fatal_signal_pending(current)) break; --> return NULL;

To fix this, do not check fatal_signal_pending() in vm_area_alloc_pages() if __GFP_NOFAIL set.

This issue occurred during OPLUS KASAN TEST. Below is part of the log -> oom-killer sends signal to process [65731.222840] [ T1308] oom-kill:constraint=CONSTRAINT_NONE,nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0,global_oom,task_memcg=/apps/uid_10198,task=gs.intelligence,pid=32454,uid=10198

[65731.259685] [T32454] Call trace: [65731.259698] [T32454] dump_backtrace+0xf4/0x118 [65731.259734] [T32454] show_stack+0x18/0x24 [65731.259756] [T32454] dump_stack_lvl+0x60/0x7c [65731.259781] [T32454] dump_stack+0x18/0x38 [65731.259800] [T32454] mrdump_common_die+0x250/0x39c [mrdump] [65731.259936] [T32454] ipanic_die+0x20/0x34 [mrdump] [65731.260019] [T32454] atomic_notifier_call_chain+0xb4/0xfc [65731.260047] [T32454] notify_die+0x114/0x198 [65731.260073] [T32454] die+0xf4/0x5b4 [65731.260098] [T32454] die_kernel_fault+0x80/0x98 [65731.260124] [T32454] __do_kernel_fault+0x160/0x2a8 [65731.260146] [T32454] do_bad_area+0x68/0x148 [65731.260174] [T32454] do_mem_abort+0x151c/0x1b34 [65731.260204] [T32454] el1_abort+0x3c/0x5c [65731.260227] [T32454] el1h_64_sync_handler+0x54/0x90 [65731.260248] [T32454] el1h_64_sync+0x68/0x6c

[65731.260269] [T32454] z_erofs_decompress_queue+0x7f0/0x2258 --> be->decompressed_pages = kvcalloc(be->nr_pages, sizeof(struct page *), GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL); kernel panic by NULL pointer dereference. erofs assume kvmalloc with __GFP_NOFAIL never return NULL. [65731.260293] [T32454] z_erofs_runqueue+0xf30/0x104c [65731.260314] [T32454] z_erofs_readahead+0x4f0/0x968 [65731.260339] [T32454] read_pages+0x170/0xadc [65731.260364] [T32454] page_cache_ra_unbounded+0x874/0xf30 [65731.260388] [T32454] page_cache_ra_order+0x24c/0x714 [65731.260411] [T32454] filemap_fault+0xbf0/0x1a74 [65731.260437] [T32454] __do_fault+0xd0/0x33c [65731.260462] [T32454] handle_mm_fault+0xf74/0x3fe0 [65731.260486] [T32454] do_mem_abort+0x54c/0x1b34 [65731.260509] [T32454] el0_da+0x44/0x94 [65731.260531] [T32454] el0t_64_sync_handler+0x98/0xb4 [65731.260553] [T32454] el0t_64_sync+0x198/0x19c

Weakness: CWE-770

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-39474?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-39474?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-39474 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-39474 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-43258, BELL-CVE-2024-39474, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-39474, GHSA-h9fh-4377-wfq4, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-39474.

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