CVE-2023-53224

Summary

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

ext4: Fix function prototype mismatch for ext4_feat_ktype

With clang's kernel control flow integrity (kCFI, CONFIG_CFI_CLANG), indirect call targets are validated against the expected function pointer prototype to make sure the call target is valid to help mitigate ROP attacks. If they are not identical, there is a failure at run time, which manifests as either a kernel panic or thread getting killed.

ext4_feat_ktype was setting the "release" handler to "kfree", which doesn't have a matching function prototype. Add a simple wrapper with the correct prototype.

This was found as a result of Clang's new -Wcast-function-type-strict flag, which is more sensitive than the simpler -Wcast-function-type, which only checks for type width mismatches.

Note that this code is only reached when ext4 is a loadable module and it is being unloaded:

CFI failure at kobject_put+0xbb/0x1b0 (target: kfree+0x0/0x180; expected type: 0x7c4aa698) … RIP: 0010:kobject_put+0xbb/0x1b0 … Call Trace: <TASK> ext4_exit_sysfs+0x14/0x60 [ext4] cleanup_module+0x67/0xedb [ext4]

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 2b69cdd9f9a7f596e3dd31f05f9852940d177924affected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 99e3fd21f8fc975c95e8cf76fbf6a3d2656f8f71affected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 1ba10d3640e9783dad811fe4e24d55465c37c64daffected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < c98077f7598a562f51051eec043be0cb3e1b1b5eaffected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 0a1394e07c5d6bf1bfc25db8589ff1b1bfb6f46aaffected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 94d8de83286fb1827340eba35b61c308f6b46eadaffected
LinuxLinuxb99fee58a20ab8e0557cce87b6f187e325993142 < 118901ad1f25d2334255b3d50512fa20591531cdaffected
LinuxLinux4.16affected
LinuxLinux0 < 4.16unaffected
LinuxLinux4.19.274 <= 4.19.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.4.233 <= 5.4.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.10.170 <= 5.10.*unaffected
LinuxLinux5.15.96 <= 5.15.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.1.14 <= 6.1.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.2.1 <= 6.2.*unaffected
LinuxLinux6.3 <= *unaffected

Weaknesses

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

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

References