Vulnerabilities > CVE-2021-38203 - Improper Locking vulnerability in multiple products
Attack vector
LOCAL Attack complexity
LOW Privileges required
LOW Confidentiality impact
NONE Integrity impact
NONE Availability impact
HIGH Summary
btrfs in the Linux kernel before 5.13.4 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (deadlock) via processes that trigger allocation of new system chunks during times when there is a shortage of free space in the system space_info.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Leveraging Race Conditions This attack targets a race condition occurring when multiple processes access and manipulate the same resource concurrently and the outcome of the execution depends on the particular order in which the access takes place. The attacker can leverage a race condition by "running the race", modifying the resource and modifying the normal execution flow. For instance a race condition can occur while accessing a file, the attacker can trick the system by replacing the original file with his version and cause the system to read the malicious file.
- Leveraging Race Conditions via Symbolic Links This attack leverages the use of symbolic links (Symlinks) in order to write to sensitive files. An attacker can create a Symlink link to a target file not otherwise accessible to her. When the privileged program tries to create a temporary file with the same name as the Symlink link, it will actually write to the target file pointed to by the attackers' Symlink link. If the attacker can insert malicious content in the temporary file she will be writing to the sensitive file by using the Symlink. The race occurs because the system checks if the temporary file exists, then creates the file. The attacker would typically create the Symlink during the interval between the check and the creation of the temporary file.
References
- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.13.4
- https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v5.x/ChangeLog-5.13.4
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/1cb3db1cf383a3c7dbda1aa0ce748b0958759947
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/1cb3db1cf383a3c7dbda1aa0ce748b0958759947
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210902-0010/
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210902-0010/