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In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been...

Moderate severity Unreviewed Published Oct 21, 2024 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Nov 8, 2024

Package

No package listedSuggest a package

Affected versions

Unknown

Patched versions

Unknown

Description

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

btrfs: fix a NULL pointer dereference when failed to start a new trasacntion

[BUG]
Syzbot reported a NULL pointer dereference with the following crash:

FAULT_INJECTION: forcing a failure.
start_transaction+0x830/0x1670 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:676
prepare_to_relocate+0x31f/0x4c0 fs/btrfs/relocation.c:3642
relocate_block_group+0x169/0xd20 fs/btrfs/relocation.c:3678
...
BTRFS info (device loop0): balance: ended with status: -12
Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc00000000cc: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000660-0x0000000000000667]
RIP: 0010:btrfs_update_reloc_root+0x362/0xa80 fs/btrfs/relocation.c:926
Call Trace:

commit_fs_roots+0x2ee/0x720 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:1496
btrfs_commit_transaction+0xfaf/0x3740 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:2430
del_balance_item fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3678 [inline]
reset_balance_state+0x25e/0x3c0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3742
btrfs_balance+0xead/0x10c0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4574
btrfs_ioctl_balance+0x493/0x7c0 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:3673
vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
__do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:907 [inline]
__se_sys_ioctl+0xf9/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:893
do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

[CAUSE]
The allocation failure happens at the start_transaction() inside
prepare_to_relocate(), and during the error handling we call
unset_reloc_control(), which makes fs_info->balance_ctl to be NULL.

Then we continue the error path cleanup in btrfs_balance() by calling
reset_balance_state() which will call del_balance_item() to fully delete
the balance item in the root tree.

However during the small window between set_reloc_contrl() and
unset_reloc_control(), we can have a subvolume tree update and created a
reloc_root for that subvolume.

Then we go into the final btrfs_commit_transaction() of
del_balance_item(), and into btrfs_update_reloc_root() inside
commit_fs_roots().

That function checks if fs_info->reloc_ctl is in the merge_reloc_tree
stage, but since fs_info->reloc_ctl is NULL, it results a NULL pointer
dereference.

[FIX]
Just add extra check on fs_info->reloc_ctl inside
btrfs_update_reloc_root(), before checking
fs_info->reloc_ctl->merge_reloc_tree.

That DEAD_RELOC_TREE handling is to prevent further modification to the
reloc tree during merge stage, but since there is no reloc_ctl at all,
we do not need to bother that.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 21, 2024
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 21, 2024
Last updated Nov 8, 2024

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(5th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2024-49868

GHSA ID

GHSA-6pw8-39hw-qcp8

Source code

No known source code

Dependabot alerts are not supported on this advisory because it does not have a package from a supported ecosystem with an affected and fixed version.

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