Bug 2348516 (CVE-2025-21727)

Summary: CVE-2025-21727 kernel: padata: fix UAF in padata_reorder
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: dfreiber, drow, jburrell, vkumar
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A use-after-free vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel's padata subsystem, in the `padata_reorder()` function. Caused by improper synchronization controls, this vulnerability can occur when a reference-counted data structure (`pd`) is decremented in one thread, freeing it, while another thread still holds a pointer to it and attempts to access it via `padata_find_next()`. This vulnerability can lead to system instability, denial of service, and potential privilege escalation.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-02-27 03:01:31 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

padata: fix UAF in padata_reorder

A bug was found when run ltp test:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in padata_find_next+0x29/0x1a0
Read of size 4 at addr ffff88bbfe003524 by task kworker/u113:2/3039206

CPU: 0 PID: 3039206 Comm: kworker/u113:2 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.6.0+
Workqueue: pdecrypt_parallel padata_parallel_worker
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x32/0x50
print_address_description.constprop.0+0x6b/0x3d0
print_report+0xdd/0x2c0
kasan_report+0xa5/0xd0
padata_find_next+0x29/0x1a0
padata_reorder+0x131/0x220
padata_parallel_worker+0x3d/0xc0
process_one_work+0x2ec/0x5a0

If 'mdelay(10)' is added before calling 'padata_find_next' in the
'padata_reorder' function, this issue could be reproduced easily with
ltp test (pcrypt_aead01).

This can be explained as bellow:

pcrypt_aead_encrypt
...
padata_do_parallel
refcount_inc(&pd->refcnt); // add refcnt
...
padata_do_serial
padata_reorder // pd
while (1) {
padata_find_next(pd, true); // using pd
queue_work_on
...
padata_serial_worker				crypto_del_alg
padata_put_pd_cnt // sub refcnt
						padata_free_shell
						padata_put_pd(ps->pd);
						// pd is freed
// loop again, but pd is freed
// call padata_find_next, UAF
}

In the padata_reorder function, when it loops in 'while', if the alg is
deleted, the refcnt may be decreased to 0 before entering
'padata_find_next', which leads to UAF.

As mentioned in [1], do_serial is supposed to be called with BHs disabled
and always happen under RCU protection, to address this issue, add
synchronize_rcu() in 'padata_free_shell' wait for all _do_serial calls
to finish.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20221028160401.cccypv4euxikusiq@parnassus.localdomain/
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-kernel/jfjz5d7zwbytztackem7ibzalm5lnxldi2eofeiczqmqs2m7o6@fq426cwnjtkm/