In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ipv6: anycast: insert aca into global hash under idev->lock
syzbot reported a splat [1]: a slab-use-after-free in
ipv6_chk_acast_addr(), which walks the global inet6_acaddr_lst[] hash
under RCU and dereferences a struct ifacaddr6 that has already been
freed while still linked in the hash, so a later reader walks into a
dangling node.
In __ipv6_dev_ac_inc() the aca is allocated with refcount 1, then
aca_get() bumps it to 2 to keep it alive across the unlocked region.
It is published to idev->ac_list under idev->lock, but
ipv6_add_acaddr_hash() runs after write_unlock_bh(). A concurrent
teardown (ipv6_ac_destroy_dev() from addrconf_ifdown(), under RTNL)
can slip into that window:
CPU0 __ipv6_dev_ac_inc CPU1 ipv6_ac_destroy_dev (RTNL)
------------------------------ ------------------------------------
aca_alloc() refcnt 1
aca_get() refcnt 2
write_lock_bh(idev->lock)
add aca to ac_list
write_unlock_bh(idev->lock)
write_lock_bh(idev->lock)
pull aca off ac_list
write_unlock_bh(idev->lock)
ipv6_del_acaddr_hash(aca)
hlist_del_init_rcu() is a no-op,
aca is not in the hash yet
aca_put() refcnt 2->1
ipv6_add_acaddr_hash(aca)
aca now inserted into the hash
aca_put() refcnt 1->0
call_rcu(aca_free_rcu) -> kfree(aca)
The hash removal becomes a no-op because the insertion has not
happened yet, so once CPU0 inserts and drops the last reference, the
aca is freed while still linked in inet6_acaddr_lst[], and readers
dereference freed memory after the slab slot is reused.
This window opened once RTNL stopped serializing the join path against
device teardown. Move ipv6_add_acaddr_hash() inside the idev->lock
section so the ac_list and hash insertions are atomic with respect to
teardown: a racing remover now either misses the aca entirely or finds
it in both lists.
acaddr_hash_lock is now nested under idev->lock, which is acquired in
softirq context, so switch all acaddr_hash_lock sites to spin_lock_bh()
to avoid the irq lock inversion reported in [2].
[1] https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=a01df04303c131efbf3a
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/6a194ef7.ba3b1513.1890b4.0000.GAE@google.com/