CVE-2024-50296 - NULL Pointer Dereference

Severity

55%

Complexity

18%

Confidentiality

60%

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net: hns3: fix kernel crash when uninstalling driver When the driver is uninstalled and the VF is disabled concurrently, a kernel crash occurs. The reason is that the two actions call function pci_disable_sriov(). The num_VFs is checked to determine whether to release the corresponding resources. During the second calling, num_VFs is not 0 and the resource release function is called. However, the corresponding resource has been released during the first invoking. Therefore, the problem occurs: [15277.839633][T50670] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000020 ... [15278.131557][T50670] Call trace: [15278.134686][T50670] klist_put+0x28/0x12c [15278.138682][T50670] klist_del+0x14/0x20 [15278.142592][T50670] device_del+0xbc/0x3c0 [15278.146676][T50670] pci_remove_bus_device+0x84/0x120 [15278.151714][T50670] pci_stop_and_remove_bus_device+0x6c/0x80 [15278.157447][T50670] pci_iov_remove_virtfn+0xb4/0x12c [15278.162485][T50670] sriov_disable+0x50/0x11c [15278.166829][T50670] pci_disable_sriov+0x24/0x30 [15278.171433][T50670] hnae3_unregister_ae_algo_prepare+0x60/0x90 [hnae3] [15278.178039][T50670] hclge_exit+0x28/0xd0 [hclge] [15278.182730][T50670] __se_sys_delete_module.isra.0+0x164/0x230 [15278.188550][T50670] __arm64_sys_delete_module+0x1c/0x30 [15278.193848][T50670] invoke_syscall+0x50/0x11c [15278.198278][T50670] el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x158/0x164 [15278.203837][T50670] do_el0_svc+0x34/0xcc [15278.207834][T50670] el0_svc+0x20/0x30 For details, see the following figure. rmmod hclge disable VFs ---------------------------------------------------- hclge_exit() sriov_numvfs_store() ... device_lock() pci_disable_sriov() hns3_pci_sriov_configure() pci_disable_sriov() sriov_disable() sriov_disable() if !num_VFs : if !num_VFs : return; return; sriov_del_vfs() sriov_del_vfs() ... ... klist_put() klist_put() ... ... num_VFs = 0; num_VFs = 0; device_unlock(); In this patch, when driver is removing, we get the device_lock() to protect num_VFs, just like sriov_numvfs_store().

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

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

While there are no complete fixes aside from conscientious programming, the following steps will go a long way to ensure that NULL pointer dereferences do not occur.


               
}
/* make use of pointer1 *//* ... */

If you are working with a multithreaded or otherwise asynchronous environment, ensure that proper locking APIs are used to lock before the if statement; and unlock when it has finished.

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

This example takes an IP address from a user, verifies that it is well formed and then looks up the hostname and copies it into a buffer.


               
}
strcpy(hostname, hp->h_name);/*routine that ensures user_supplied_addr is in the right format for conversion */

If an attacker provides an address that appears to be well-formed, but the address does not resolve to a hostname, then the call to gethostbyaddr() will return NULL. Since the code does not check the return value from gethostbyaddr (CWE-252), a NULL pointer dereference would then occur in the call to strcpy().

Note that this example is also vulnerable to a buffer overflow (see CWE-119).

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

In the following code, the programmer assumes that the system always has a property named "cmd" defined. If an attacker can control the program's environment so that "cmd" is not defined, the program throws a NULL pointer exception when it attempts to call the trim() method.


               
cmd = cmd.trim();

NULL Pointer Dereference

CWE-476

This application has registered to handle a URL when sent an intent:


               
}......
}
}
int length = URL.length();
...

The application assumes the URL will always be included in the intent. When the URL is not present, the call to getStringExtra() will return null, thus causing a null pointer exception when length() is called.

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