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wait_for_helper: SIGCHLD from user-space can lead to use-after-free
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1. wait_for_helper() calls allow_signal(SIGCHLD) to ensure the child
   can't autoreap itself.

   However, this means that a spurious SIGCHILD from user-space can
   set TIF_SIGPENDING and:

   	- kernel_thread() or sys_wait4() can fail due to signal_pending()

   	- worse, wait4() can fail before ____call_usermodehelper() execs
   	  or exits. In this case the caller may kfree(subprocess_info)
   	  while the child still uses this memory.

   Change the code to use SIG_DFL instead of magic "(void __user *)2"
   set by allow_signal(). This means that SIGCHLD won't be delivered,
   yet the child won't autoreap itsefl.

   The problem is minor, only root can send a signal to this kthread.

2. If sys_wait4(&ret) fails it doesn't populate "ret", in this case
   wait_for_helper() reports a random value from uninitialized var.

   With this patch sys_wait4() should never fail, but still it makes
   sense to initialize ret = -ECHILD so that the caller can notice
   the problem.

Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <[email protected]>
Acked-by: Neil Horman <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
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oleg-nesterov authored and torvalds committed May 27, 2010
1 parent 363da40 commit 7d64224
Showing 1 changed file with 5 additions and 5 deletions.
10 changes: 5 additions & 5 deletions kernel/kmod.c
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -175,16 +175,16 @@ static int wait_for_helper(void *data)
struct subprocess_info *sub_info = data;
pid_t pid;

/* Install a handler: if SIGCLD isn't handled sys_wait4 won't
* populate the status, but will return -ECHILD. */
allow_signal(SIGCHLD);
/* If SIGCLD is ignored sys_wait4 won't populate the status. */
spin_lock_irq(&current->sighand->siglock);
current->sighand->action[SIGCHLD-1].sa.sa_handler = SIG_DFL;
spin_unlock_irq(&current->sighand->siglock);

pid = kernel_thread(____call_usermodehelper, sub_info, SIGCHLD);
if (pid < 0) {
sub_info->retval = pid;
} else {
int ret;

int ret = -ECHILD;
/*
* Normally it is bogus to call wait4() from in-kernel because
* wait4() wants to write the exit code to a userspace address.
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