CVE-2024-26904 - Improper Locking

Severity

55%

Complexity

18%

Confidentiality

60%

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix data race at btrfs_use_block_rsv() when accessing block reserve At btrfs_use_block_rsv() we read the size of a block reserve without locking its spinlock, which makes KCSAN complain because the size of a block reserve is always updated while holding its spinlock. The report from KCSAN is the following: [653.313148] BUG: KCSAN: data-race in btrfs_update_delayed_refs_rsv [btrfs] / btrfs_use_block_rsv [btrfs] [653.314755] read to 0x000000017f5871b8 of 8 bytes by task 7519 on cpu 0: [653.314779] btrfs_use_block_rsv+0xe4/0x2f8 [btrfs] [653.315606] btrfs_alloc_tree_block+0xdc/0x998 [btrfs] [653.316421] btrfs_force_cow_block+0x220/0xe38 [btrfs] [653.317242] btrfs_cow_block+0x1ac/0x568 [btrfs] [653.318060] btrfs_search_slot+0xda2/0x19b8 [btrfs] [653.318879] btrfs_del_csums+0x1dc/0x798 [btrfs] [653.319702] __btrfs_free_extent.isra.0+0xc24/0x2028 [btrfs] [653.320538] __btrfs_run_delayed_refs+0xd3c/0x2390 [btrfs] [653.321340] btrfs_run_delayed_refs+0xae/0x290 [btrfs] [653.322140] flush_space+0x5e4/0x718 [btrfs] [653.322958] btrfs_preempt_reclaim_metadata_space+0x102/0x2f8 [btrfs] [653.323781] process_one_work+0x3b6/0x838 [653.323800] worker_thread+0x75e/0xb10 [653.323817] kthread+0x21a/0x230 [653.323836] __ret_from_fork+0x6c/0xb8 [653.323855] ret_from_fork+0xa/0x30 [653.323887] write to 0x000000017f5871b8 of 8 bytes by task 576 on cpu 3: [653.323906] btrfs_update_delayed_refs_rsv+0x1a4/0x250 [btrfs] [653.324699] btrfs_add_delayed_data_ref+0x468/0x6d8 [btrfs] [653.325494] btrfs_free_extent+0x76/0x120 [btrfs] [653.326280] __btrfs_mod_ref+0x6a8/0x6b8 [btrfs] [653.327064] btrfs_dec_ref+0x50/0x70 [btrfs] [653.327849] walk_up_proc+0x236/0xa50 [btrfs] [653.328633] walk_up_tree+0x21c/0x448 [btrfs] [653.329418] btrfs_drop_snapshot+0x802/0x1328 [btrfs] [653.330205] btrfs_clean_one_deleted_snapshot+0x184/0x238 [btrfs] [653.330995] cleaner_kthread+0x2b0/0x2f0 [btrfs] [653.331781] kthread+0x21a/0x230 [653.331800] __ret_from_fork+0x6c/0xb8 [653.331818] ret_from_fork+0xa/0x30 So add a helper to get the size of a block reserve while holding the lock. Reading the field while holding the lock instead of using the data_race() annotation is used in order to prevent load tearing.

Rejected reason: This CVE ID has been rejected or withdrawn by its CVE Numbering Authority.

CVSS 3.1 Base Score 5.5. CVSS Attack Vector: local. CVSS Attack Complexity: low. CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Demo Examples

Improper Locking

CWE-667

In the following Java snippet, methods are defined to get and set a long field in an instance of a class that is shared across multiple threads. Because operations on double and long are nonatomic in Java, concurrent access may cause unexpected behavior. Thus, all operations on long and double fields should be synchronized.


               
}
return someLongValue;
someLongValue = l;

Improper Locking

CWE-667

This code tries to obtain a lock for a file, then writes to it.


               
fclose($logFile);
}//attempt to get logfile lock
flock($logfile, LOCK_UN);// unlock logfile
print "Could not obtain lock on logFile.log, message not recorded\n";

PHP by default will wait indefinitely until a file lock is released. If an attacker is able to obtain the file lock, this code will pause execution, possibly leading to denial of service for other users. Note that in this case, if an attacker can perform an flock() on the file, they may already have privileges to destroy the log file. However, this still impacts the execution of other programs that depend on flock().

Improper Locking

CWE-667

The following function attempts to acquire a lock in order to perform operations on a shared resource.


               
}
pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex);/* access shared resource */

However, the code does not check the value returned by pthread_mutex_lock() for errors. If pthread_mutex_lock() cannot acquire the mutex for any reason the function may introduce a race condition into the program and result in undefined behavior.

In order to avoid data races correctly written programs must check the result of thread synchronization functions and appropriately handle all errors, either by attempting to recover from them or reporting it to higher levels.


               
}
return pthread_mutex_unlock(mutex);
return result;
/* access shared resource */

Improper Locking

CWE-667

It may seem that the following bit of code achieves thread safety while avoiding unnecessary synchronization...


               
return helper;
}
}
helper = new Helper();

The programmer wants to guarantee that only one Helper() object is ever allocated, but does not want to pay the cost of synchronization every time this code is called.

Suppose that helper is not initialized. Then, thread A sees that helper==null and enters the synchronized block and begins to execute:


               
helper = new Helper();

If a second thread, thread B, takes over in the middle of this call and helper has not finished running the constructor, then thread B may make calls on helper while its fields hold incorrect values.

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