Vulnerabilities > CVE-2024-35997 - Improper Locking vulnerability in Linux Kernel

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
CWE-667
NVD
Published: 2024-05-20
Updated: 2024-11-21

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: HID: i2c-hid: remove I2C_HID_READ_PENDING flag to prevent lock-up The flag I2C_HID_READ_PENDING is used to serialize I2C operations. However, this is not necessary, because I2C core already has its own locking for that. More importantly, this flag can cause a lock-up: if the flag is set in i2c_hid_xfer() and an interrupt happens, the interrupt handler (i2c_hid_irq) will check this flag and return immediately without doing anything, then the interrupt handler will be invoked again in an infinite loop. Since interrupt handler is an RT task, it takes over the CPU and the flag-clearing task never gets scheduled, thus we have a lock-up. Delete this unnecessary flag.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
OS
Linux
3780

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