Patch "sysctl: Drop reference added by grab_header in proc_sys_readdir" has been added to the 4.4-stable tree

This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled

sysctl: Drop reference added by grab_header in proc_sys_readdir

to the 4.4-stable tree which can be found at:
http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary

The filename of the patch is:
sysctl-drop-reference-added-by-grab_header-in-proc_sys_readdir.patch
and it can be found in the queue-4.4 subdirectory.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <[email protected]> know about it.

From: Zhou Chengming <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2017 09:32:32 +0800
Subject: sysctl: Drop reference added by grab_header in proc_sys_readdir

From: Zhou Chengming <[email protected]>

commit 93362fa47fe98b62e4a34ab408c4a418432e7939 upstream.

Fixes CVE-2016-9191, proc_sys_readdir doesn't drop reference added by grab_header when return from !dir_emit_dots path. It can cause any path called unregister_sysctl_table will wait forever.

The calltrace of CVE-2016-9191:

[ 5535.960522] Call Trace:
[ 5535.963265]  [<ffffffff817cdaaf>] schedule+0x3f/0xa0
[ 5535.968817]  [<ffffffff817d33fb>] schedule_timeout+0x3db/0x6f0
[ 5535.975346]  [<ffffffff817cf055>] ? wait_for_completion+0x45/0x130
[ 5535.982256]  [<ffffffff817cf0d3>] wait_for_completion+0xc3/0x130
[ 5535.988972]  [<ffffffff810d1fd0>] ? wake_up_q+0x80/0x80
[ 5535.994804]  [<ffffffff8130de64>] drop_sysctl_table+0xc4/0xe0
[ 5536.001227]  [<ffffffff8130de17>] drop_sysctl_table+0x77/0xe0
[ 5536.007648]  [<ffffffff8130decd>] unregister_sysctl_table+0x4d/0xa0
[ 5536.014654]  [<ffffffff8130deff>] unregister_sysctl_table+0x7f/0xa0
[ 5536.021657]  [<ffffffff810f57f5>] unregister_sched_domain_sysctl+0x15/0x40
[ 5536.029344]  [<ffffffff810d7704>] partition_sched_domains+0x44/0x450
[ 5536.036447]  [<ffffffff817d0761>] ? __mutex_unlock_slowpath+0x111/0x1f0
[ 5536.043844]  [<ffffffff81167684>] rebuild_sched_domains_locked+0x64/0xb0
[ 5536.051336]  [<ffffffff8116789d>] update_flag+0x11d/0x210
[ 5536.057373]  [<ffffffff817cf61f>] ? mutex_lock_nested+0x2df/0x450
[ 5536.064186]  [<ffffffff81167acb>] ? cpuset_css_offline+0x1b/0x60
[ 5536.070899]  [<ffffffff810fce3d>] ? trace_hardirqs_on+0xd/0x10
[ 5536.077420]  [<ffffffff817cf61f>] ? mutex_lock_nested+0x2df/0x450
[ 5536.084234]  [<ffffffff8115a9f5>] ? css_killed_work_fn+0x25/0x220
[ 5536.091049]  [<ffffffff81167ae5>] cpuset_css_offline+0x35/0x60
[ 5536.097571]  [<ffffffff8115aa2c>] css_killed_work_fn+0x5c/0x220
[ 5536.104207]  [<ffffffff810bc83f>] process_one_work+0x1df/0x710
[ 5536.110736]  [<ffffffff810bc7c0>] ? process_one_work+0x160/0x710
[ 5536.117461]  [<ffffffff810bce9b>] worker_thread+0x12b/0x4a0
[ 5536.123697]  [<ffffffff810bcd70>] ? process_one_work+0x710/0x710
[ 5536.130426]  [<ffffffff810c3f7e>] kthread+0xfe/0x120
[ 5536.135991]  [<ffffffff817d4baf>] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x40
[ 5536.142041]  [<ffffffff810c3e80>] ? kthread_create_on_node+0x230/0x230

One cgroup maintainer mentioned that "cgroup is trying to offline a cpuset css, which takes place under cgroup_mutex. The offlining ends up trying to drain active usages of a sysctl table which apprently is not happening."
The real reason is that proc_sys_readdir doesn't drop reference added by grab_header when return from !dir_emit_dots path. So this cpuset offline path will wait here forever.

See here for details: http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/11/04/13

---
 fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c |    3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

@@ -703,7 +703,7 @@ static int proc_sys_readdir(struct file
 	ctl_dir = container_of(head, struct ctl_dir, header);
 
 	if (!dir_emit_dots(file, ctx))
-		return 0;
+		goto out;
 
 	pos = 2;
 

@@ -713,6 +713,7 @@ static int proc_sys_readdir(struct file
 			break;
 		}
 	}
+out:
 	sysctl_head_finish(head);
 	return 0;
 }

Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from [email protected] are

queue-4.4/sysctl-drop-reference-added-by-grab_header-in-proc_sys_readdir.patch