CVE-2024-42096
x86: stop playing stack games in profile_pc()
Severity Score
Exploit Likelihood
Affected Versions
Public Exploits
0Exploited in Wild
-Decision
Descriptions
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86: stop playing stack games in profile_pc() The 'profile_pc()' function is used for timer-based profiling, which
isn't really all that relevant any more to begin with, but it also ends
up making assumptions based on the stack layout that aren't necessarily
valid. Basically, the code tries to account the time spent in spinlocks to the
caller rather than the spinlock, and while I support that as a concept,
it's not worth the code complexity or the KASAN warnings when no serious
profiling is done using timers anyway these days. And the code really does depend on stack layout that is only true in the
simplest of cases. We've lost the comment at some point (I think when
the 32-bit and 64-bit code was unified), but it used to say: Assume the lock function has either no stack frame or a copy of eflags from PUSHF. which explains why it just blindly loads a word or two straight off the
stack pointer and then takes a minimal look at the values to just check
if they might be eflags or the return pc: Eflags always has bits 22 and up cleared unlike kernel addresses but that basic stack layout assumption assumes that there isn't any lock
debugging etc going on that would complicate the code and cause a stack
frame. It causes KASAN unhappiness reported for years by syzkaller [1] and
others [2]. With no real practical reason for this any more, just remove the code. Just for historical interest, here's some background commits relating to
this code from 2006: 0cb91a229364 ("i386: Account spinlocks to the caller during profiling for !FP kernels") 31679f38d886 ("Simplify profile_pc on x86-64") and a code unification from 2009: ef4512882dbe ("x86: time_32/64.c unify profile_pc") but the basics of this thing actually goes back to before the git tree.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: x86: stop playing stack games in profile_pc() The 'profile_pc()' function is used for timer-based profiling, which isn't really all that relevant any more to begin with, but it also ends up making assumptions based on the stack layout that aren't necessarily valid. Basically, the code tries to account the time spent in spinlocks to the caller rather than the spinlock, and while I support that as a concept, it's not worth the code complexity or the KASAN warnings when no serious profiling is done using timers anyway these days. And the code really does depend on stack layout that is only true in the simplest of cases. We've lost the comment at some point (I think when the 32-bit and 64-bit code was unified), but it used to say: Assume the lock function has either no stack frame or a copy of eflags from PUSHF. which explains why it just blindly loads a word or two straight off the stack pointer and then takes a minimal look at the values to just check if they might be eflags or the return pc: Eflags always has bits 22 and up cleared unlike kernel addresses but that basic stack layout assumption assumes that there isn't any lock debugging etc going on that would complicate the code and cause a stack frame. It causes KASAN unhappiness reported for years by syzkaller [1] and others [2]. With no real practical reason for this any more, just remove the code. Just for historical interest, here's some background commits relating to this code from 2006: 0cb91a229364 ("i386: Account spinlocks to the caller during profiling for !FP kernels") 31679f38d886 ("Simplify profile_pc on x86-64") and a code unification from 2009: ef4512882dbe ("x86: time_32/64.c unify profile_pc") but the basics of this thing actually goes back to before the git tree.
Chenyuan Yang discovered that the CEC driver driver in the Linux kernel contained a use-after-free vulnerability. A local attacker could use this to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code. Chenyuan Yang discovered that the USB Gadget subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly check for the device to be enabled before writing. A local attacker could possibly use this to cause a denial of service.
CVSS Scores
SSVC
- Decision:Track
Timeline
- 2024-07-29 CVE Reserved
- 2024-07-29 CVE Published
- 2024-12-19 CVE Updated
- 2025-03-19 EPSS Updated
- ---------- Exploited in Wild
- ---------- KEV Due Date
- ---------- First Exploit
CWE
- CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read
CAPEC
References (10)
URL | Tag | Source |
---|
URL | Date | SRC |
---|
URL | Date | SRC |
---|---|---|
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-42096 | 2024-09-24 | |
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2300713 | 2024-09-24 |
Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions
Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status | <-- --> | Vendor | Product | Version | Other | Status |
Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 4.19.317 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 4.19.317" | en |
Affected
| ||||||
Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 5.4.279 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 5.4.279" | en |
Affected
| ||||||
Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 5.10.221 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 5.10.221" | en |
Affected
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Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 5.15.162 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 5.15.162" | en |
Affected
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Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 6.1.97 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 6.1.97" | en |
Affected
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Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 6.6.37 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 6.6.37" | en |
Affected
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Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 6.9.8 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 6.9.8" | en |
Affected
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Linux Search vendor "Linux" | Linux Kernel Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" | < 6.10 Search vendor "Linux" for product "Linux Kernel" and version " < 6.10" | en |
Affected
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