Bug 1560788 (CVE-2018-1094)

Summary: CVE-2018-1094 kernel: NULL pointer dereference in ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_inode_hash() causes crash with crafted ext4 image
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Sam Fowler <sfowler>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Red Hat Product Security <security-response-team>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact:
Severity: low Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: unspecifiedCC: airlied, ajax, aquini, bhu, blc, bskeggs, dhoward, ewk, fhrbata, hdegoede, hkrzesin, hwkernel-mgr, iboverma, ichavero, itamar, jarodwilson, jforbes, jglisse, jkacur, john.j5live, jonathan, josef, jross, jwboyer, kernel-maint, kernel-mgr, labbott, lgoncalv, linville, matt, mchehab, mcressma, mjg59, mlangsdo, nmurray, plougher, rt-maint, rvrbovsk, skozina, slawomir, steved, vdronov, williams
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Reopened, Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
The Linux kernel is vulnerable to a NULL pointer dereference in the ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_inode_hash() function. An attacker could trick a legitimate user or a privileged attacker could exploit this to cause a NULL pointer dereference with a crafted ext4 image.
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2019-06-10 10:18:48 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On: 1560789, 1560790, 1564561, 1564562, 1564563, 1564564, 1564565    
Bug Blocks: 1560791    

Description Sam Fowler 2018-03-27 01:11:20 UTC
The Linux kernel is vulnerable to a NULL pointer dereference in the ext4/xattr.c:ext4_xattr_inode_hash() function. An attacker could trick a legitimate user or a privileged attacker could exploit this to cause a NULL pointer dereference with a crafted ext4 image.

References:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199183

http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2018/q1/284

Upstream patches:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=a45403b51582a

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=18db4b4e6fc31

Comment 1 Sam Fowler 2018-03-27 01:11:54 UTC
Acknowledgments:

Name: Wen Xu

Comment 2 Sam Fowler 2018-03-27 01:12:51 UTC
Created kernel tracking bugs for this issue:

Affects: fedora-all [bug 1560790]

Comment 5 Vladis Dronov 2018-03-30 15:06:55 UTC
Notes:

While the reproducer works when run as a privileged user (the "root"), this requires a mount of a certain filesystem image. An unprivileged attacker cannot do this even from a user+mount namespace:

$ unshare -U -r -m
# mount -t ext4 fs.img mnt/
mount: mnt/: mount failed: Operation not permitted.

The article https://lwn.net/Articles/652468/ (thanks, Jonathan!) discusses unprivileged user mounts and hostile filesystem images:
 
> ... for the most part, the mount() system call is denied to processes running
> within user namespaces, even if they are privileged in their namespaces.

It also states that unprivileged filesystem mounts are not allowed as of now in the Linux kernel and probably won't be allowed in a future. Until that such flaws are considered as not exploitable:

> There were no proposals for solutions to the hostile-filesystem problem.
> But, in the absence of some sort of assurance that they can be made safe,
> unprivileged filesystem mounts are unlikely to gain acceptance; even if the
> feature gets into the kernel, distributions would be likely to disable it.

On the other hand, there is a potential possibility that still an attacker can trick a regular user to mount a malicious filesystem image, like trick him to insert an usb-flash-drive with a forged filesystem to a desktop system which will auto-mount it. In case this results only in a system crash (a DoS due to, for example, a NULL pointer dereference) the flaw impact is low but it still exists.

Another example is that if an attacker wants to hack into his coworker's notebook. While a coworker is away (on a coffee break) an attacker may insert an usb-flash-drive into the target notebook. In case of a flaw which results in a privilege escalation the flaw's impact is high. In case of a system crashes the impact is lower, but still a harm is done by crashing the system mid-work and losing a work done so far.

So the Red Hat would still consider bugs which require mounting a filesystem image to exploit as security flaws.

Comment 7 Justin M. Forbes 2018-05-04 16:34:32 UTC
This is fixed for Fedora with 4.16.4 stable updates.

Comment 8 errata-xmlrpc 2018-10-30 07:32:33 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2018:3083 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3083

Comment 9 errata-xmlrpc 2018-10-30 07:38:43 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2018:3096 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3096

Comment 10 errata-xmlrpc 2018-10-30 08:59:23 UTC
This issue has been addressed in the following products:

  Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

Via RHSA-2018:2948 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2948