Cyber Posture

CVE-2024-57896

High

Published: 15 January 2025

Published
15 January 2025
Modified
03 November 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0002 6.7th percentile
Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: flush delalloc workers queue before stopping cleaner kthread during unmount During the unmount path, at close_ctree(), we first stop the cleaner kthread, using kthread_stop() which frees the associated task_struct, and then stop and destroy all the work queues. However after we stopped the cleaner we may still have a worker from the delalloc_workers queue running inode.c:submit_compressed_extents(), which calls btrfs_add_delayed_iput(), which in turn tries to wake up the cleaner kthread - which was already destroyed before, resulting in a use-after-free on the task_struct. Syzbot reported this with the following stack traces: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __lock_acquire+0x78/0x2100 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5089 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880259d2818 by task kworker/u8:3/52 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 52 Comm: kworker/u8:3 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc1-syzkaller-00002-gcdd30ebb1b9f #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Workqueue: btrfs-delalloc btrfs_work_helper Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x169/0x550 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602 __lock_acquire+0x78/0x2100 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5089 lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:110 [inline] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0xd5/0x120 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:162 class_raw_spinlock_irqsave_constructor include/linux/spinlock.h:551 [inline] try_to_wake_up+0xc2/0x1470 kernel/sched/core.c:4205 submit_compressed_extents+0xdf/0x16e0 fs/btrfs/inode.c:1615 run_ordered_work fs/btrfs/async-thread.c:288 [inline] btrfs_work_helper+0x96f/0xc40 fs/btrfs/async-thread.c:324 process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3229 [inline] process_scheduled_works+0xa66/0x1840 kernel/workqueue.c:3310 worker_thread+0x870/0xd30 kernel/workqueue.c:3391 kthread+0x2f0/0x390 kernel/kthread.c:389 ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244 </TASK> Allocated by task 2: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68 unpoison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:319 [inline] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x66/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:345 kasan_slab_alloc include/linux/kasan.h:250 [inline] slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4104 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4153 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0x1d9/0x380 mm/slub.c:4205 alloc_task_struct_node kernel/fork.c:180 [inline] dup_task_struct+0x57/0x8c0 kernel/fork.c:1113 copy_process+0x5d1/0x3d50 kernel/fork.c:2225 kernel_clone+0x223/0x870 kernel/fork.c:2807 kernel_thread+0x1bc/0x240 kernel/fork.c:2869 create_kthread kernel/kthread.c:412 [inline] kthreadd+0x60d/0x810 kernel/kthread.c:767 ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244 Freed by task 24: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_free_info+0x40/0x50 mm/kasan/generic.c:582 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x59/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:264 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2338 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:4598 [inline] kmem_cache_free+0x195/0x410 mm/slub.c:4700 put_task_struct include/linux/sched/task.h:144 [inline] delayed_put_task_struct+0x125/0x300 kernel/exit.c:227 rcu_do_batch kernel/rcu/tree.c:2567 [inline] rcu_core+0xaaa/0x17a0 kernel/rcu/tree.c:2823 handle_softirqs+0x2d4/0x9b0 kernel/softirq.c:554 run_ksoftirqd+0xca/0x130 kernel/softirq.c:943 ---truncated---

Security Summary

CVE-2024-57896 is a use-after-free vulnerability in the BTRFS filesystem of the Linux kernel. The issue arises during filesystem unmount in the close_ctree() function, where the cleaner kthread is stopped and its task_struct freed before flushing and stopping the delalloc_workers queue. A lingering worker from this queue may execute submit_compressed_extents() in inode.c, which invokes btrfs_add_delayed_iput() and attempts to wake the already-destroyed cleaner kthread, triggering the use-after-free. This was detected by Syzbot via KASAN in kernel version 6.13.0-rc1, manifesting as a slab-use-after-free in lockdep during a spinlock acquisition in try_to_wake_up().

A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this vulnerability with low complexity and no user interaction, as indicated by its CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8 (AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). Exploitation requires triggering the race condition during BTRFS unmount, such as by mounting and unmounting a BTRFS filesystem while submitting compressed extents via delalloc workers. Successful exploitation of the use-after-free (CWE-416) on the task_struct could enable kernel memory corruption, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution, privilege escalation, denial of service, or data leakage with high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Mitigation involves applying upstream kernel patches, such as those in the referenced stable commits (e.g., 1ea629e7bb2fb40555e5e01a1b5095df31287017), which flush the delalloc workers queue before stopping the cleaner kthread during unmount. Security practitioners should update affected Linux kernels supporting BTRFS to versions incorporating these fixes and monitor for syzkaller-like fuzzing reproductions in testing environments.

Details

CWE(s)
CWE-416

Affected Products

linux
linux kernel
6.13 · ≤ 5.10.233 · 5.11 — 5.15.176 · 5.16 — 6.1.124

References