CVE-2024-56547 rcu/nocb: Fix missed RCU barrier on deoffloading

What is CVE-2024-56547?

CVE-2024-56547 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Dec 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:

rcu/nocb: Fix missed RCU barrier on deoffloading

Currently, running rcutorture test with torture_type=rcu fwd_progress=8 n_barrier_cbs=8 nocbs_nthreads=8 nocbs_toggle=100 onoff_interval=60 test_boost=2, will trigger the following warning:

WARNING: CPU: 19 PID: 100 at kernel/rcu/tree_nocb.h:1061 rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 RIP: 0010:rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? __warn+0x7e/0x120 ? rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 ? report_bug+0x18e/0x1a0 ? handle_bug+0x3d/0x70 ? exc_invalid_op+0x18/0x70 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20 ? rcu_nocb_rdp_deoffload+0x292/0x2a0 rcu_nocb_cpu_deoffload+0x70/0xa0 rcu_nocb_toggle+0x136/0x1c0 ? __pfx_rcu_nocb_toggle+0x10/0x10 kthread+0xd1/0x100 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x2f/0x50 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK>

CPU0 CPU2 CPU3 //rcu_nocb_toggle //nocb_cb_wait //rcutorture

// deoffload CPU1 // process CPU1's rdp rcu_barrier() rcu_segcblist_entrain() rcu_segcblist_add_len(1); // len == 2 // enqueue barrier // callback to CPU1's // rdp->cblist rcu_do_batch() // invoke CPU1's rdp->cblist // callback rcu_barrier_callback() rcu_barrier() mutex_lock(&rcu_state.barrier_mutex); // still see len == 2 // enqueue barrier callback // to CPU1's rdp->cblist rcu_segcblist_entrain() rcu_segcblist_add_len(1); // len == 3 // decrement len rcu_segcblist_add_len(-2); kthread_parkme()

// CPU1's rdp->cblist len == 1 // Warn because there is // still a pending barrier // trigger warning WARN_ON_ONCE(rcu_segcblist_n_cbs(&rdp->cblist)); cpus_read_unlock();

// wait CPU1 to comes online and // invoke barrier callback on // CPU1 rdp's->cblist wait_for_completion(&rcu_state.barrier_completion); // deoffload CPU4 cpus_read_lock() rcu_barrier() mutex_lock(&rcu_state.barrier_mutex); // block on barrier_mutex // wait rcu_barrier() on // CPU3 to unlock barrier_mutex // but CPU3 unlock barrier_mutex // need to wait CPU1 comes online // when CPU1 going online will block on cpus_write_lock

The above scenario will not only trigger a WARN_ON_ONCE(), but also trigger a deadlock.

Thanks to nocb locking, a second racing rcu_barrier() on an offline CPU will either observe the decremented callback counter down to 0 and spare the callback enqueue, or rcuo will observe the new callback and keep rdp->nocb_cb_sleep to false.

Therefore check rdp->nocb_cb_sleep before parking to make sure no further rcu_barrier() is waiting on the rdp.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-56547?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2024-56547?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2024-56547 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-56547 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2024-56547, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-56547, GHSA-rqc3-hghm-q589, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-56547.