CVE-2022-50214

Published Jun 18, 2025

Last updated a year ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: coresight: Clear the connection field properly coresight devices track their connections (output connections) and hold a reference to the fwnode. When a device goes away, we walk through the devices on the coresight bus and make sure that the references are dropped. This happens both ways: a) For all output connections from the device, drop the reference to the target device via coresight_release_platform_data() b) Iterate over all the devices on the coresight bus and drop the reference to fwnode if *this* device is the target of the output connection, via coresight_remove_conns()->coresight_remove_match(). However, the coresight_remove_match() doesn't clear the fwnode field, after dropping the reference, this causes use-after-free and additional refcount drops on the fwnode. e.g., if we have two devices, A and B, with a connection, A -> B. If we remove B first, B would clear the reference on B, from A via coresight_remove_match(). But when A is removed, it still has a connection with fwnode still pointing to B. Thus it tries to drops the reference in coresight_release_platform_data(), raising the bells like : [ 91.990153] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 91.990163] refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free. [ 91.990212] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 461 at lib/refcount.c:25 refcount_warn_saturate+0xa0/0x144 [ 91.990260] Modules linked in: coresight_funnel coresight_replicator coresight_etm4x(-) crct10dif_ce coresight ip_tables x_tables ipv6 [last unloaded: coresight_cpu_debug] [ 91.990398] CPU: 0 PID: 461 Comm: rmmod Tainted: G W T 5.19.0-rc2+ #53 [ 91.990418] Hardware name: ARM LTD ARM Juno Development Platform/ARM Juno Development Platform, BIOS EDK II Feb 1 2019 [ 91.990434] pstate: 600000c5 (nZCv daIF -PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) [ 91.990454] pc : refcount_warn_saturate+0xa0/0x144 [ 91.990476] lr : refcount_warn_saturate+0xa0/0x144 [ 91.990496] sp : ffff80000c843640 [ 91.990509] x29: ffff80000c843640 x28: ffff800009957c28 x27: ffff80000c8439a8 [ 91.990560] x26: ffff00097eff1990 x25: ffff8000092b6ad8 x24: ffff00097eff19a8 [ 91.990610] x23: ffff80000c8439a8 x22: 0000000000000000 x21: ffff80000c8439c2 [ 91.990659] x20: 0000000000000000 x19: ffff00097eff1a10 x18: ffff80000ab99c40 [ 91.990708] x17: 0000000000000000 x16: 0000000000000000 x15: ffff80000abf6fa0 [ 91.990756] x14: 000000000000001d x13: 0a2e656572662d72 x12: 657466612d657375 [ 91.990805] x11: 203b30206e6f206e x10: 6f69746964646120 x9 : ffff8000081aba28 [ 91.990854] x8 : 206e6f206e6f6974 x7 : 69646461203a745f x6 : 746e756f63666572 [ 91.990903] x5 : ffff00097648ec58 x4 : 0000000000000000 x3 : 0000000000000027 [ 91.990952] x2 : 0000000000000000 x1 : 0000000000000000 x0 : ffff00080260ba00 [ 91.991000] Call trace: [ 91.991012] refcount_warn_saturate+0xa0/0x144 [ 91.991034] kobject_get+0xac/0xb0 [ 91.991055] of_node_get+0x2c/0x40 [ 91.991076] of_fwnode_get+0x40/0x60 [ 91.991094] fwnode_handle_get+0x3c/0x60 [ 91.991116] fwnode_get_nth_parent+0xf4/0x110 [ 91.991137] fwnode_full_name_string+0x48/0xc0 [ 91.991158] device_node_string+0x41c/0x530 [ 91.991178] pointer+0x320/0x3ec [ 91.991198] vsnprintf+0x23c/0x750 [ 91.991217] vprintk_store+0x104/0x4b0 [ 91.991238] vprintk_emit+0x8c/0x360 [ 91.991257] vprintk_default+0x44/0x50 [ 91.991276] vprintk+0xcc/0xf0 [ 91.991295] _printk+0x68/0x90 [ 91.991315] of_node_release+0x13c/0x14c [ 91.991334] kobject_put+0x98/0x114 [ 91.991354] of_node_put+0x24/0x34 [ 91.991372] of_fwnode_put+0x40/0x5c [ 91.991390] fwnode_handle_put+0x38/0x50 [ 91.991411] coresight_release_platform_data+0x74/0xb0 [coresight] [ 91.991472] coresight_unregister+0x64/0xcc [coresight] [ 91.991525] etm4_remove_dev+0x64/0x78 [coresight_etm4x] [ 91.991563] etm4_remove_amba+0x1c/0x2c [coresight_etm4x] [ 91.991598] amba_remove+0x3c/0x19c ---truncated---
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-416

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

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