CVE-2009-2844

Published Aug 18, 2009

Last updated 6 months ago

Overview

Description
cfg80211 in net/wireless/scan.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.30-rc1 and other versions before 2.6.31-rc6 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a sequence of beacon frames in which one frame omits an SSID Information Element (IE) and the subsequent frame contains an SSID IE, which triggers a NULL pointer dereference in the cmp_ies function. NOTE: a potential weakness in the is_mesh function was also addressed, but the relevant condition did not exist in the code, so it is not a vulnerability.
Source
cve@mitre.org
NVD status
Modified
Products
kernel, linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 2.0

Type
Primary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
6.9
Exploitability score
10
Vector string
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-399

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Vendor comments

  • Red HatNot vulnerable. This issue did not affect the versions of Linux kernel as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, 5 or Red Hat Enterprise MRG. Please note this issue only affected Linux kernel versions after v2.6.30-rc1 and was fixed in v2.6.31-rc6.

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163