CVE-2021-46939

Summary

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

tracing: Restructure trace_clock_global() to never block

It was reported that a fix to the ring buffer recursion detection would cause a hung machine when performing suspend / resume testing. The following backtrace was extracted from debugging that case:

Call Trace: trace_clock_global+0x91/0xa0 __rb_reserve_next+0x237/0x460 ring_buffer_lock_reserve+0x12a/0x3f0 trace_buffer_lock_reserve+0x10/0x50 __trace_graph_return+0x1f/0x80 trace_graph_return+0xb7/0xf0 ? trace_clock_global+0x91/0xa0 ftrace_return_to_handler+0x8b/0xf0 ? pv_hash+0xa0/0xa0 return_to_handler+0x15/0x30 ? ftrace_graph_caller+0xa0/0xa0 ? trace_clock_global+0x91/0xa0 ? __rb_reserve_next+0x237/0x460 ? ring_buffer_lock_reserve+0x12a/0x3f0 ? trace_event_buffer_lock_reserve+0x3c/0x120 ? trace_event_buffer_reserve+0x6b/0xc0 ? trace_event_raw_event_device_pm_callback_start+0x125/0x2d0 ? dpm_run_callback+0x3b/0xc0 ? pm_ops_is_empty+0x50/0x50 ? platform_get_irq_byname_optional+0x90/0x90 ? trace_device_pm_callback_start+0x82/0xd0 ? dpm_run_callback+0x49/0xc0

With the following RIP:

RIP: 0010:native_queued_spin_lock_slowpath+0x69/0x200

Since the fix to the recursion detection would allow a single recursion to happen while tracing, this lead to the trace_clock_global() taking a spin lock and then trying to take it again:

ring_buffer_lock_reserve() { trace_clock_global() { arch_spin_lock() { queued_spin_lock_slowpath() { /* lock taken / (something else gets traced by function graph tracer) ring_buffer_lock_reserve() { trace_clock_global() { arch_spin_lock() { queued_spin_lock_slowpath() { / DEAD LOCK! */

Tracing should never block, as it can lead to strange lockups like the above.

Restructure the trace_clock_global() code to instead of simply taking a lock to update the recorded "prev_time" simply use it, as two events happening on two different CPUs that calls this at the same time, really doesn't matter which one goes first. Use a trylock to grab the lock for updating the prev_time, and if it fails, simply try again the next time. If it failed to be taken, that means something else is already updating it.

Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=212761

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < 91ca6f6a91f679c8645d7f3307e03ce86ad518c4affected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < 859b47a43f5a0e5b9a92b621dc6ceaad39fb5c8baffected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < 1fca00920327be96f3318224f502e4d5460f9545affected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < d43d56dbf452ccecc1ec735cd4b6840118005d7caffected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < c64da3294a7d59a4bf6874c664c13be892f15f44affected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < a33614d52e97fc8077eb0b292189ca7d964cc534affected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < 6e2418576228eeb12e7ba82edb8f9500623942ffaffected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < 2a1bd74b8186d7938bf004f5603f25b84785f63eaffected
LinuxLinux14131f2f98ac350ee9e73faed916d2238a8b6a0d < aafe104aa9096827a429bc1358f8260ee565b7ccaffected
LinuxLinux2.6.30affected
LinuxLinux0 < 2.6.30unaffected
LinuxLinux4.4.269 <= 4.4.*unaffected
LinuxLinux4.9.269 <= 4.9.*unaffected
LinuxLinux4.14.233 <= 4.14.*unaffected
LinuxLinux4.19.191 <= 4.19.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.4.118 <= 5.4.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.36 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.11.20 <= 5.11.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.12.3 <= 5.12.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.13 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

  • SSVC:
  • Exploitation: none
    • Automatable: no
    • Technical Impact: partial

CVE Program Container

Additional References

References