CVE-2024-55916

MEDIUM

Linux Kernel 4.9-6.12.6 - HyperV Utility Driver NULL Pointer Dereference

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Drivers: hv: util: Avoid accessing a ringbuffer not initialized yet If the KVP (or VSS) daemon starts before the VMBus channel's ringbuffer is fully initialized, we can hit the panic below: hv_utils: Registering HyperV Utility Driver hv_vmbus: registering driver hv_utils ... BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 CPU: 44 UID: 0 PID: 2552 Comm: hv_kvp_daemon Tainted: G E 6.11.0-rc3+ #1 RIP: 0010:hv_pkt_iter_first+0x12/0xd0 Call Trace: ... vmbus_recvpacket hv_kvp_onchannelcallback vmbus_on_event tasklet_action_common tasklet_action handle_softirqs irq_exit_rcu sysvec_hyperv_stimer0 </IRQ> <TASK> asm_sysvec_hyperv_stimer0 ... kvp_register_done hvt_op_read vfs_read ksys_read __x64_sys_read This can happen because the KVP/VSS channel callback can be invoked even before the channel is fully opened: 1) as soon as hv_kvp_init() -> hvutil_transport_init() creates /dev/vmbus/hv_kvp, the kvp daemon can open the device file immediately and register itself to the driver by writing a message KVP_OP_REGISTER1 to the file (which is handled by kvp_on_msg() ->kvp_handle_handshake()) and reading the file for the driver's response, which is handled by hvt_op_read(), which calls hvt->on_read(), i.e. kvp_register_done(). 2) the problem with kvp_register_done() is that it can cause the channel callback to be called even before the channel is fully opened, and when the channel callback is starting to run, util_probe()-> vmbus_open() may have not initialized the ringbuffer yet, so the callback can hit the panic of NULL pointer dereference. To reproduce the panic consistently, we can add a "ssleep(10)" for KVP in __vmbus_open(), just before the first hv_ringbuffer_init(), and then we unload and reload the driver hv_utils, and run the daemon manually within the 10 seconds. Fix the panic by reordering the steps in util_probe() so the char dev entry used by the KVP or VSS daemon is not created until after vmbus_open() has completed. This reordering prevents the race condition from happening.

Scores

CVSS v3 5.5
EPSS 0.0021
EPSS Percentile 10.7%
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-476
Status published
Products (24)
linux/Kernel 4.9.0 - 5.4.289linux
linux/Kernel 5.11.0 - 5.15.176linux
linux/Kernel 5.16.0 - 6.1.122linux
linux/Kernel 5.5.0 - 5.10.233linux
linux/Kernel 6.2.0 - 6.6.68linux
linux/Kernel 6.7.0 - 6.12.7linux
Linux/Linux < 4.9
Linux/Linux 4.9
Linux/Linux 5.10.233 - 5.10.*
Linux/Linux 5.15.176 - 5.15.*
... and 14 more
Published Jan 11, 2025
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026