CVE-2021-47350

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 4.14-5.4.132 - Denial of Service via PowerPC Kernel Exec Fault Handling

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/mm: Fix lockup on kernel exec fault The powerpc kernel is not prepared to handle exec faults from kernel. Especially, the function is_exec_fault() will return 'false' when an exec fault is taken by kernel, because the check is based on reading current->thread.regs->trap which contains the trap from user. For instance, when provoking a LKDTM EXEC_USERSPACE test, current->thread.regs->trap is set to SYSCALL trap (0xc00), and the fault taken by the kernel is not seen as an exec fault by set_access_flags_filter(). Commit d7df2443cd5f ("powerpc/mm: Fix spurious segfaults on radix with autonuma") made it clear and handled it properly. But later on commit d3ca587404b3 ("powerpc/mm: Fix reporting of kernel execute faults") removed that handling, introducing test based on error_code. And here is the problem, because on the 603 all upper bits of SRR1 get cleared when the TLB instruction miss handler bails out to ISI. Until commit cbd7e6ca0210 ("powerpc/fault: Avoid heavy search_exception_tables() verification"), an exec fault from kernel at a userspace address was indirectly caught by the lack of entry for that address in the exception tables. But after that commit the kernel mainly relies on KUAP or on core mm handling to catch wrong user accesses. Here the access is not wrong, so mm handles it. It is a minor fault because PAGE_EXEC is not set, set_access_flags_filter() should set PAGE_EXEC and voila. But as is_exec_fault() returns false as explained in the beginning, set_access_flags_filter() bails out without setting PAGE_EXEC flag, which leads to a forever minor exec fault. As the kernel is not prepared to handle such exec faults, the thing to do is to fire in bad_kernel_fault() for any exec fault taken by the kernel, as it was prior to commit d3ca587404b3.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0018
EPSS Percentile 7.8%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation none
Automatable no
Technical Impact partial

Details

CWE
CWE-667
Status published
Products (13)
Linux/Linux < 4.14
Linux/Linux 4.14
Linux/Linux 5.10.51 - 5.10.*
Linux/Linux 5.12.18 - 5.12.*
Linux/Linux 5.13.3 - 5.13.*
Linux/Linux 5.14
Linux/Linux 5.4.133 - 5.4.*
Linux/Linux d3ca587404b36943b02df87406054ce73cc49500 - 500f81cec9f1bfa5210aa9dd5ba9a06e22f62a35
Linux/Linux d3ca587404b36943b02df87406054ce73cc49500 - 8a96ec5ebf96ad8e2ba7b1b34103a0be5140fc70
Linux/Linux d3ca587404b36943b02df87406054ce73cc49500 - a82471a14aad90f79d1608d2bcbb019f0ffb53f0
... and 3 more
Published May 21, 2024
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026