In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
serial: caif: fix use-after-free in caif_serial ldisc_close()
There is a use-after-free bug in caif_serial where handle_tx() may
access ser->tty after the tty has been freed.
The race condition occurs between ldisc_close() and packet transmission:
<pre>
CPU 0 (close) CPU 1 (xmit)
------------- ------------
ldisc_close()
tty_kref_put(ser->tty)
[tty may be freed here]
<-- race window -->
caif_xmit()
handle_tx()
tty = ser->tty // dangling ptr
tty->ops->write() // UAF!
schedule_work()
ser_release()
unregister_netdevice()
</pre>
The root cause is that tty_kref_put() is called in ldisc_close() while
the network device is still active and can receive packets.
Since ser and tty have a 1:1 binding relationship with consistent
lifecycles (ser is allocated in ldisc_open and freed in ser_release
via unregister_netdevice, and each ser binds exactly one tty), we can
safely defer the tty reference release to ser_release() where the
network device is unregistered.
Fix this by moving tty_kref_put() from ldisc_close() to ser_release(),
after unregister_netdevice(). This ensures the tty reference is held
as long as the network device exists, preventing the UAF.
Note: We save ser->tty before unregister_netdevice() because ser is
embedded in netdev's private data and will be freed along with netdev
(needs_free_netdev = true).
How to reproduce: Add mdelay(500) at the beginning of ldisc_close()
to widen the race window, then run the reproducer program 1.
Note: There is a separate deadloop issue in handle_tx() when using
PORT_UNKNOWN serial ports (e.g., /dev/ttyS3 in QEMU without proper
serial backend). This deadloop exists even without this patch,
and is likely caused by inconsistency between uart_write_room() and
uart_write() in serial core. It has been addressed in a separate
patch 2.
KASAN report:
==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in handle_tx+0x5d1/0x620
Read of size 1 at addr ffff8881131e1490 by task caif_uaf_trigge/9929
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x10e/0x1f0
print_report+0xd0/0x630
kasan_report+0xe4/0x120
handle_tx+0x5d1/0x620
dev_hard_start_xmit+0x9d/0x6c0
__dev_queue_xmit+0x6e2/0x4410
packet_xmit+0x243/0x360
packet_sendmsg+0x26cf/0x5500
__sys_sendto+0x4a3/0x520
__x64_sys_sendto+0xe0/0x1c0
do_syscall_64+0xc9/0xf80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7f615df2c0d7
Allocated by task 9930:
Freed by task 64:
Last potentially related work creation:
The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8881131e1000
which belongs to the cache kmalloc-cg-2k of size 2048
The buggy address is located 1168 bytes inside of
freed 2048-byte region [ffff8881131e1000, ffff8881131e1800)
The buggy address belongs to the physical page:
page_owner tracks the page as allocated
page last free pid 9778 tgid 9778 stack trace:
Memory state around the buggy address:
ffff8881131e1380: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
ffff8881131e1400: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
ffff8881131e1480: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
^
ffff8881131e1500: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
ffff8881131e1580: fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb fb
==================================================================