CVE-2024-56693: brd: defer automatic disk creation until module initialization succeeds

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-12-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-416

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: brd: defer automatic disk creation until module initialization succeeds My colleague Wupeng found the following problems during fault injection: BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: fffffbfff809d073 PGD 6e648067 P4D 123ec8067 PUD 123ec4067 PMD 100e38067 PTE 0 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI CPU: 5 UID: 0 PID: 755 Comm: modprobe Not tainted 6.12.0-rc3+ #17 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.1-2.fc37 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:__asan_load8+0x4c/0xa0 ... Call Trace: <TASK> blkdev_put_whole+0x41/0x70 bdev_release+0x1a3/0x250 blkdev_release+0x11/0x20 __fput+0x1d7/0x4a0 task_work_run+0xfc/0x180 syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x1de/0x1f0 do_syscall_64+0x6b/0x170 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e loop_init() is calling loop_add() after __register_blkdev() succeeds and is ignoring disk_add() failure from loop_add(), for loop_add() failure is not fatal and successfully created disks are already visible to bdev_open(). brd_init() is currently calling brd_alloc() before __register_blkdev() succeeds and is releasing successfully created disks when brd_init() returns an error. This can cause UAF for the latter two case: case 1: T1: modprobe brd brd_init brd_alloc(0) // success add_disk disk_scan_partitions bdev_file_open_by_dev // alloc file fput // won't free until back to userspace brd_alloc(1) // failed since mem alloc error inject // error path for modprobe will release code segment // back to userspace __fput blkdev_release bdev_release blkdev_put_whole bdev->bd_disk->fops->release // fops is freed now, UAF! case 2: T1: T2: modprobe brd brd_init brd_alloc(0) // success open(/dev/ram0) brd_alloc(1) // fail // error path for modprobe close(/dev/ram0) ... /* UAF! */ bdev->bd_disk->fops->release Fix this problem by following what loop_init() does. Besides, reintroduce brd_devices_mutex to help serialize modifications to brd_list.

Affected products

Linux kernel: from 5.14 before 5.15.174; from 5.16 before 6.1.120; from 6.2 before 6.6.64; from 6.7 before 6.11.11; from 6.12 before 6.12.2 — fixed in 5.15.174, 6.1.120, 6.11.11, 6.12.2, 6.6.64

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 5.15.174, 6.1.120, 6.11.11, 6.12.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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