In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
scsi: target: Fix recursive locking in __configfs_open_file()
In flush_write_buffer, &p->frag_sem is acquired and then the loaded store
function is called, which, here, is target_core_item_dbroot_store(). This
function called filp_open(), following which these functions were called
(in reverse order), according to the call trace:
down_read
__configfs_open_file
do_dentry_open
vfs_open
do_open
path_openat
do_filp_open
file_open_name
filp_open
target_core_item_dbroot_store
flush_write_buffer
configfs_write_iter
target_core_item_dbroot_store() tries to validate the new file path by
trying to open the file path provided to it; however, in this case, the bug
report shows:
db_root: not a directory: /sys/kernel/config/target/dbroot
indicating that the same configfs file was tried to be opened, on which it
is currently working on. Thus, it is trying to acquire frag_sem semaphore
of the same file of which it already holds the semaphore obtained in
flush_write_buffer(), leading to acquiring the semaphore in a nested manner
and a possibility of recursive locking.
Fix this by modifying target_core_item_dbroot_store() to use kern_path()
instead of filp_open() to avoid opening the file using filesystem-specific
function __configfs_open_file(), and further modifying it to make this fix
compatible.