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Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2024-56701

CVE-2024-56701: 
Linux Kernel vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

CVE-2024-56701 affects the Linux kernel's powerpc/pseries subsystem, specifically related to the dtlaccesslock implementation. The vulnerability was discovered in December 2024 and involves an incorrect lock type usage that can lead to sleeping in atomic context (NVD).

Technical details

The vulnerability stems from using a rwlock (dtlaccesslock) where a sleeping lock (rwsemaphore) is required, as the code calls kmalloc() while holding the lock, which can sleep. This causes a BUG when attempting to write to /proc/powerpc/vcpudispatchstats, triggering a "sleeping function called from invalid context" error. The issue was introduced by commit 06220d78f24a which implemented the rwlock for DTLB usage gatekeeping (Kernel Commit).

Impact

When triggered, the vulnerability causes a kernel BUG condition due to sleeping in atomic context, which can lead to system instability or denial of service on affected PowerPC systems running the Linux kernel (NVD).

Mitigation and workarounds

The fix involves changing dtlaccesslock from a rwlock to a rw_semaphore and updating all related lock/unlock operations accordingly. This has been patched in the Linux kernel with commit cadae3a45d23aa4f6485938a67cbc47aaaa25e38 and backported to various stable kernel versions (Kernel Commit).

Additional resources

Source: This report was generated using AI

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