CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedThe vulnerability affects the Linux kernel's xfrm subsystem, specifically during the reallocation of policy bins in the xfrm_hash_rebuild function, which can lead to a general protection fault and potential kernel panic. This issue arises when memory pressure causes allocation failures, leaving a poisoned node that can be dereferenced in subsequent operations. System administrators and developers managing Linux environments should prioritize addressing this vulnerability to prevent crashes and ensure system stability, especially in high-load scenarios.
Original NVD Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfrm: policy: preallocate inexact bins before xfrm_hash_rebuild reinsert xfrm_hash_rebuild()'s first loop preallocates the bins/chains the reinsert loop needs, so the reinsert (after hlist_del_rcu()) cannot allocate or fail. But its guard is inverted: it skips policies with prefixlen < threshold and preallocates for the rest. prefixlen < threshold is exactly when policy_hash_bysel() returns NULL and the reinsert takes the allocating xfrm_policy_inexact_insert() path. So the loop preallocates for the exact policies (which never allocate) and skips the inexact ones, whose bin/node is then allocated GFP_ATOMIC during reinsert. On failure the error path only WARN_ONCE()s and continues, leaving a poisoned bydst node; the next rebuild's hlist_del_rcu() dereferences LIST_POISON2 and takes a GPF. Reachable under memory pressure, deterministic via failslab. Invert the guard so preallocation covers exactly the reinserted policies; the reinsert then allocates nothing and cannot fail. Crash: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xfbd59c0000000024: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: maybe wild-memory-access in range [0xdead...] ... Workqueue: events xfrm_hash_rebuild RIP: 0010:xfrm_hash_rebuild+0x5b3/0x1190 RAX: dead000000000122 (LIST_POISON2 + offset) ... Call Trace: hlist_del_rcu (include/linux/rculist.h:599) xfrm_hash_rebuild (net/xfrm/xfrm_policy.c:1365) process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3322) worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3486) kthread (kernel/kthread.c:436) ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158) ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245) ... Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt