Bug 2400691 (CVE-2023-53531)

Summary: CVE-2023-53531 kernel: null_blk: fix poll request timeout handling
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-10-01 12:01:51 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

null_blk: fix poll request timeout handling

When doing io_uring benchmark on /dev/nullb0, it's easy to crash the
kernel if poll requests timeout triggered, as reported by David. [1]

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000008
Workqueue: kblockd blk_mq_timeout_work
RIP: 0010:null_timeout_rq+0x4e/0x91
Call Trace:
 ? null_timeout_rq+0x4e/0x91
 blk_mq_handle_expired+0x31/0x4b
 bt_iter+0x68/0x84
 ? bt_tags_iter+0x81/0x81
 __sbitmap_for_each_set.constprop.0+0xb0/0xf2
 ? __blk_mq_complete_request_remote+0xf/0xf
 bt_for_each+0x46/0x64
 ? __blk_mq_complete_request_remote+0xf/0xf
 ? percpu_ref_get_many+0xc/0x2a
 blk_mq_queue_tag_busy_iter+0x14d/0x18e
 blk_mq_timeout_work+0x95/0x127
 process_one_work+0x185/0x263
 worker_thread+0x1b5/0x227

This is indeed a race problem between null_timeout_rq() and null_poll().

null_poll()				null_timeout_rq()
  spin_lock(&nq->poll_lock)
  list_splice_init(&nq->poll_list, &list)
  spin_unlock(&nq->poll_lock)

  while (!list_empty(&list))
    req = list_first_entry()
    list_del_init()
    ...
    blk_mq_add_to_batch()
    // req->rq_next = NULL
					spin_lock(&nq->poll_lock)

					// rq->queuelist->next == NULL
					list_del_init(&rq->queuelist)

					spin_unlock(&nq->poll_lock)

Fix these problems by setting requests state to MQ_RQ_COMPLETE under
nq->poll_lock protection, in which null_timeout_rq() can safely detect
this race and early return.

Note this patch just fix the kernel panic when request timeout happen.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/3893581.1691785261@warthog.procyon.org.uk/