Vulnerabilities > CVE-2024-26933 - Improper Locking vulnerability in Linux Kernel

047910
CVSS 7.8 - HIGH
Attack vector
LOCAL
Attack complexity
LOW
Privileges required
LOW
Confidentiality impact
HIGH
Integrity impact
HIGH
Availability impact
HIGH
local
low complexity
linux
CWE-667
NVD
Published: 2024-05-01
Updated: 2024-11-21

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: USB: core: Fix deadlock in port "disable" sysfs attribute The show and store callback routines for the "disable" sysfs attribute file in port.c acquire the device lock for the port's parent hub device. This can cause problems if another process has locked the hub to remove it or change its configuration: Removing the hub or changing its configuration requires the hub interface to be removed, which requires the port device to be removed, and device_del() waits until all outstanding sysfs attribute callbacks for the ports have returned. The lock can't be released until then. But the disable_show() or disable_store() routine can't return until after it has acquired the lock. The resulting deadlock can be avoided by calling sysfs_break_active_protection(). This will cause the sysfs core not to wait for the attribute's callback routine to return, allowing the removal to proceed. The disadvantage is that after making this call, there is no guarantee that the hub structure won't be deallocated at any moment. To prevent this, we have to acquire a reference to it first by calling hub_get().

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
OS
Linux
5513

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