In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: md/md-llbitmap: prevent create failure bitmap UAF llbitmap_create() publishes mddev->bitmap before reading the bitmap superblock

Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

md/md-llbitmap: prevent create failure bitmap UAF

llbitmap_create() publishes mddev->bitmap before reading the bitmap superblock. This is needed because llbitmap_read_sb() can initialize a new bitmap and flush it through helpers that use mddev->bitmap.

If llbitmap_read_sb() fails, the old cleanup dropped bitmap_info.mutex and freed llbitmap before clearing mddev->bitmap. Readers such as /proc/mdstat rely on bitmap_info.mutex to keep the bitmap pointer stable while collecting bitmap stats, so they could observe the stale pointer after the failed create path released the mutex.

Clear mddev->bitmap while still holding bitmap_info.mutex, then free the failed llbitmap after dropping the mutex. This makes mutex-protected readers see either a live bitmap or no bitmap.

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.