Vulnerabilities > CVE-2024-26696 - Improper Locking vulnerability in multiple products

047910
CVSS 5.5 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
LOCAL
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
LOW
Confidentiality impact
NONE
Integrity impact
NONE
Availability impact
HIGH
local
low complexity
linux
debian
CWE-667
NVD
Published: 2024-04-03
Updated: 2025-03-17

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: fix hang in nilfs_lookup_dirty_data_buffers() Syzbot reported a hang issue in migrate_pages_batch() called by mbind() and nilfs_lookup_dirty_data_buffers() called in the log writer of nilfs2. While migrate_pages_batch() locks a folio and waits for the writeback to complete, the log writer thread that should bring the writeback to completion picks up the folio being written back in nilfs_lookup_dirty_data_buffers() that it calls for subsequent log creation and was trying to lock the folio. Thus causing a deadlock. In the first place, it is unexpected that folios/pages in the middle of writeback will be updated and become dirty. Nilfs2 adds a checksum to verify the validity of the log being written and uses it for recovery at mount, so data changes during writeback are suppressed. Since this is broken, an unclean shutdown could potentially cause recovery to fail. Investigation revealed that the root cause is that the wait for writeback completion in nilfs_page_mkwrite() is conditional, and if the backing device does not require stable writes, data may be modified without waiting. Fix these issues by making nilfs_page_mkwrite() wait for writeback to finish regardless of the stable write requirement of the backing device.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
OS
Linux
3702
OS
Debian
1

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