CVE-2022-48892

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/core: Fix use-after-free bug in dup_user_cpus_ptr()

Since commit 07ec77a1d4e8 ("sched: Allow task CPU affinity to be restricted on asymmetric systems"), the setting and clearing of user_cpus_ptr are done under pi_lock for arm64 architecture. However, dup_user_cpus_ptr() accesses user_cpus_ptr without any lock protection. Since sched_setaffinity() can be invoked from another process, the process being modified may be undergoing fork() at the same time. When racing with the clearing of user_cpus_ptr in __set_cpus_allowed_ptr_locked(), it can lead to user-after-free and possibly double-free in arm64 kernel.

Commit 8f9ea86fdf99 ("sched: Always preserve the user requested cpumask") fixes this problem as user_cpus_ptr, once set, will never be cleared in a task's lifetime. However, this bug was re-introduced in commit 851a723e45d1 ("sched: Always clear user_cpus_ptr in do_set_cpus_allowed()") which allows the clearing of user_cpus_ptr in do_set_cpus_allowed(). This time, it will affect all arches.

Fix this bug by always clearing the user_cpus_ptr of the newly cloned/forked task before the copying process starts and check the user_cpus_ptr state of the source task under pi_lock.

Note to stable, this patch won't be applicable to stable releases. Just copy the new dup_user_cpus_ptr() function over.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate because exploitation requires local system access and winning a tight race condition between process cloning and CPU affinity updates. Unprivileged local attackers could attempt to trigger this race to cause memory corruption, potentially leading to a system crash or local privilege escalation. However, successful exploitation is difficult in practice due to the narrow timing window required to induce the use-after-free state.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.