vulnerability

Ubuntu: (CVE-2021-46988): linux vulnerability

Severity
5
CVSS
(AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C)
Published
Feb 28, 2024
Added
Nov 19, 2024
Modified
Sep 5, 2025

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

userfaultfd: release page in error path to avoid BUG_ON

Consider the following sequence of events:

1. Userspace issues a UFFD ioctl, which ends up calling into
shmem_mfill_atomic_pte(). We successfully account the blocks, we
shmem_alloc_page(), but then the copy_from_user() fails. We return
-ENOENT. We don't release the page we allocated.
2. Our caller detects this error code, tries the copy_from_user() after
dropping the mmap_lock, and retries, calling back into
shmem_mfill_atomic_pte().
3. Meanwhile, let's say another process filled up the tmpfs being used.
4. So shmem_mfill_atomic_pte() fails to account blocks this time, and
immediately returns - without releasing the page.

This triggers a BUG_ON in our caller, which asserts that the page
should always be consumed, unless -ENOENT is returned.

To fix this, detect if we have such a "dangling" page when accounting
fails, and if so, release it before returning.

Solutions

ubuntu-upgrade-linuxubuntu-upgrade-linux-awsubuntu-upgrade-linux-aws-5-4ubuntu-upgrade-linux-aws-fipsubuntu-upgrade-linux-aws-hweubuntu-upgrade-linux-azureubuntu-upgrade-linux-azure-4-15ubuntu-upgrade-linux-azure-5-4ubuntu-upgrade-linux-azure-fipsubuntu-upgrade-linux-bluefieldubuntu-upgrade-linux-fipsubuntu-upgrade-linux-gcpubuntu-upgrade-linux-gcp-4-15ubuntu-upgrade-linux-gcp-5-4ubuntu-upgrade-linux-gcp-fipsubuntu-upgrade-linux-gkeopubuntu-upgrade-linux-hweubuntu-upgrade-linux-hwe-5-4ubuntu-upgrade-linux-kvmubuntu-upgrade-linux-oracleubuntu-upgrade-linux-oracle-5-4ubuntu-upgrade-linux-raspiubuntu-upgrade-linux-raspi-5-4

References

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