watch_queue: Fix note pool publication race in watch_queue_set_size()

Overview

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

watch_queue: Fix note pool publication race in watch_queue_set_size()

There is a race between watch_queue_set_size() and post_one_notification(). watch_queue_set_size() publishes wqueue->notes, notes_bitmap, nr_pages and nr_notes with plain stores, and post_one_notification() reads them with plain loads under a different lock, so nothing orders the four stores against the poster's loads: depending on the build, notes can be stored last (gcc 14 on x86-64 does this). Since keyctl_watch_key() lets a watch attach to a queue before it is sized, post_one_notification() can already be running on another CPU at that moment: it reads nr_notes > 0, passes its bounds check, and then reads notes while it is still NULL, dereferencing notes[0].

An unprivileged user triggers this reliably by watching one of its own keys through a notification pipe and racing ioctl(IOC_WATCH_QUEUE_SET_SIZE) on that pipe against keyctl(KEYCTL_SETPERM) on the key from another CPU, triggering:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000 RIP: 0010:post_one_notification.isra.0+0xa2/0x1e0 Call Trace: __post_watch_notification+0x148/0x180 keyctl_setperm_key+0x119/0x130 do_syscall_64+0x108/0x4c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt

Fix this by publishing nr_notes last with smp_store_release(), and by reading it once with smp_load_acquire() in post_one_notification() before the bitmap and the page array are touched. A poster that observes a non-zero nr_notes then also observes the pool behind it; one that observes zero drops the notification as before.

Affected

• Linux >= c73be61cede5882f9605a852414db559c0ebedfd < 811fb6d0b07605e8e8d93bde8748be4b3028809a
• Linux >= c73be61cede5882f9605a852414db559c0ebedfd < 9e73a6754457ffed8399b835552013b9363e51d1
• Linux >= c73be61cede5882f9605a852414db559c0ebedfd < 5e531d62f1f8834faf7a4eed0d41105cf6570a8f
• Linux 5.8

Remediation

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