CVE-2024-49866 tracing/timerlat: Fix a race during cpuhp processing

High 7.8 Published Updated

A race condition in the Linux kernel timerlat tracer can cause timer corruption and system warnings, potentially leading to denial of service.

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-2024-49866?

CVE-2024-49866 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 Oct 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:

tracing/timerlat: Fix a race during cpuhp processing

There is another found exception that the "timerlat/1" thread was scheduled on CPU0, and lead to timer corruption finally:

``` ODEBUG: init active (active state 0) object: ffff888237c2e108 object type: hrtimer hint: timerlat_irq+0x0/0x220 WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 426 at lib/debugobjects.c:518 debug_print_object+0x7d/0xb0 Modules linked in: CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 426 Comm: timerlat/1 Not tainted 6.11.0-rc7+ #45 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.13.0-1ubuntu1.1 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:debug_print_object+0x7d/0xb0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> ? __warn+0x7c/0x110 ? debug_print_object+0x7d/0xb0 ? report_bug+0xf1/0x1d0 ? prb_read_valid+0x17/0x20 ? handle_bug+0x3f/0x70 ? exc_invalid_op+0x13/0x60 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20 ? debug_print_object+0x7d/0xb0 ? debug_print_object+0x7d/0xb0 ? __pfx_timerlat_irq+0x10/0x10 __debug_object_init+0x110/0x150 hrtimer_init+0x1d/0x60 timerlat_main+0xab/0x2d0 ? __pfx_timerlat_main+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xb7/0xe0 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x2d/0x40 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK> ```

After tracing the scheduling event, it was discovered that the migration of the "timerlat/1" thread was performed during thread creation. Further analysis confirmed that it is because the CPU online processing for osnoise is implemented through workers, which is asynchronous with the offline processing. When the worker was scheduled to create a thread, the CPU may has already been removed from the cpu_online_mask during the offline process, resulting in the inability to select the right CPU:

T1 | T2 [CPUHP_ONLINE] | cpu_device_down() osnoise_hotplug_workfn() | | cpus_write_lock() | takedown_cpu(1) | cpus_write_unlock() [CPUHP_OFFLINE] | cpus_read_lock() | start_kthread(1) | cpus_read_unlock() |

To fix this, skip online processing if the CPU is already offline.

Weakness: CWE-362

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-49866?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-49866?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-49866 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-49866 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as AZL-53343, BELL-CVE-2024-49866, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-49866, GHSA-8r4r-8c3p-6r95, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-49866.

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