Vulnerabilities > CVE-2023-52903 - Improper Locking vulnerability in Linux Kernel
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: io_uring: lock overflowing for IOPOLL syzbot reports an issue with overflow filling for IOPOLL: WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 28 at io_uring/io_uring.c:734 io_cqring_event_overflow+0x1c0/0x230 io_uring/io_uring.c:734 CPU: 0 PID: 28 Comm: kworker/u4:1 Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-syzkaller-16369-g358a161a6a9e #0 Workqueue: events_unbound io_ring_exit_work Call trace: io_cqring_event_overflow+0x1c0/0x230 io_uring/io_uring.c:734 io_req_cqe_overflow+0x5c/0x70 io_uring/io_uring.c:773 io_fill_cqe_req io_uring/io_uring.h:168 [inline] io_do_iopoll+0x474/0x62c io_uring/rw.c:1065 io_iopoll_try_reap_events+0x6c/0x108 io_uring/io_uring.c:1513 io_uring_try_cancel_requests+0x13c/0x258 io_uring/io_uring.c:3056 io_ring_exit_work+0xec/0x390 io_uring/io_uring.c:2869 process_one_work+0x2d8/0x504 kernel/workqueue.c:2289 worker_thread+0x340/0x610 kernel/workqueue.c:2436 kthread+0x12c/0x158 kernel/kthread.c:376 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20 arch/arm64/kernel/entry.S:863 There is no real problem for normal IOPOLL as flush is also called with uring_lock taken, but it's getting more complicated for IOPOLL|SQPOLL, for which __io_cqring_overflow_flush() happens from the CQ waiting path.
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.