CVE-2022-50045: linux kernel vulnerability

What is known

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: powerpc/pci: Fix get_phb_number() locking The recent change to get_phb_number() causes a DEBUG_ATOMIC_SLEEP warning on some systems: BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context at kernel/locking/mutex.c:580 in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 1, name: swapper preempt_count: 1, expected: 0 RCU nest depth: 0, expected: 0 1 lock held by swapper/1: #0: c157efb0 (hose_spinlock){+.+.}-{2:2}, at: pcibios_alloc_controller+0x64/0x220 Preemption disabled at: [<00000000>] 0x0 CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper Not tainted 5.19.0-yocto-standard+ #1 Call Trace: [d101dc90] [c073b264] dump_stack_lvl+0x50/0x8c (unreliable) [d101dcb0] [c0093b70] __might_resched+0x258/0x2a8 [d101dcd0] [c0d3e634] __mutex_lock+0x6c/0x6ec [d101dd50] [c0a84174] of_alias_get_id+0x50/0xf4 [d101dd80] [c002ec78] pcibios_alloc_controller+0x1b8/0x220 [d101ddd0] [c140c9dc] pmac_pci_init+0x198/0x784 [d101de50] [c140852c] discover_phbs+0x30/0x4c [d101de60] [c0007fd4] do_one_initcall+0x94/0x344 [d101ded0] [c1403b40] kernel_init_freeable+0x1a8/0x22c [d101df10] [c00086e0] kernel_init+0x34/0x160 [d101df30] [c001b334] ret_from_kernel_thread+0x5c/0x64 This is because pcibios_alloc_controller() holds hose_spinlock but of_alias_get_id() takes of_mutex which can sleep. The hose_spinlock protects the phb_bitmap, and also the hose_list, but it doesn't need to be held while get_phb_number() calls the OF routines, because those are only looking up information in the device tree. So fix it by having get_phb_number() take the hose_spinlock itself, only where required, and then dropping the lock before returning. pcibios_alloc_controller() then needs to take the lock again before the list_add() but that's safe, the order of the list is not important.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2022-50045, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.5) affecting linux kernel, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether linux kernel is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
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