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perf/core: Fix potential double-fetch bug

While examining the kernel source code, I found a dangerous operation that could turn into a double-fetch situation (a race condition bug) where the same userspace memory region are fetched twice into kernel with sanity checks after the first fetch while missing checks after the second fetch. 1. The first fetch happens in line 9573 get_user(size, &uattr->size). 2. Subsequently the 'size' variable undergoes a few sanity checks and transformations (line 9577 to 9584). 3. The second fetch happens in line 9610 copy_from_user(attr, uattr, size) 4. Given that 'uattr' can be fully controlled in userspace, an attacker can race condition to override 'uattr->size' to arbitrary value (say, 0xFFFFFFFF) after the first fetch but before the second fetch. The changed value will be copied to 'attr->size'. 5. There is no further checks on 'attr->size' until the end of this function, and once the function returns, we lose the context to verify that 'attr->size' conforms to the sanity checks performed in step 2 (line 9577 to 9584). 6. My manual analysis shows that 'attr->size' is not used elsewhere later, so, there is no working exploit against it right now. However, this could easily turns to an exploitable one if careless developers start to use 'attr->size' later. To fix this, override 'attr->size' from the second fetch to the one from the first fetch, regardless of what is actually copied in. In this way, it is assured that 'attr->size' is consistent with the checks performed after the first fetch.

Meng Xu committed 9 years ago

Commit f12f42a1 parent 9c3a8151 file · +2 −0Browse files

Showing the changes to kernel (1 of 1 file). Show all

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kernel/events/core.c+2−0
@@ -9611,6 +9611,8 @@ static int perf_copy_attr(struct perf_event_attr __user *uattr, · 9610 unmodified lines
9611 if (ret)9611 if (ret)
9612 return -EFAULT;9612 return -EFAULT;
9613 9613
9614 attr->size = size;
9615
9614 if (attr->__reserved_1)9616 if (attr->__reserved_1)
9615 return -EINVAL;9617 return -EINVAL;
9616 9618