CVE-2021-47603
"IBM Linux Kernel Audit Daemon Resource Exhaustion Vulnerability"
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: audit: improve robustness of the audit queue handling If the audit daemon were ever to get stuck in a stopped state the kernel's kauditd_thread() could get blocked attempting to send audit records to the userspace audit daemon. With the kernel thread blocked it is possible that the audit queue could grow unbounded as certain audit record generating events must be exempt from the queue limits else the system enter a deadlock state. This patch resolves this problem by lowering the kernel thread's socket sending timeout from MAX_SCHEDULE_TIMEOUT to HZ/10 and tweaks the kauditd_send_queue() function to better manage the various audit queues when connection problems occur between the kernel and the audit daemon. With this patch, the backlog may temporarily grow beyond the defined limits when the audit daemon is stopped and the system is under heavy audit pressure, but kauditd_thread() will continue to make progress and drain the queues as it would for other connection problems. For example, with the audit daemon put into a stopped state and the system configured to audit every syscall it was still possible to shutdown the system without a kernel panic, deadlock, etc.; granted, the system was slow to shutdown but that is to be expected given the extreme pressure of recording every syscall. The timeout value of HZ/10 was chosen primarily through experimentation and this developer's "gut feeling". There is likely no one perfect value, but as this scenario is limited in scope (root privileges would be needed to send SIGSTOP to the audit daemon), it is likely not worth exposing this as a tunable at present. This can always be done at a later date if it proves necessary.
INFO
Published Date :
June 19, 2024, 3:15 p.m.
Last Modified :
June 20, 2024, 12:43 p.m.
Source :
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Remotely Exploitable :
No
Impact Score :
Exploitability Score :
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CVE Received by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Jun. 19, 2024
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: audit: improve robustness of the audit queue handling If the audit daemon were ever to get stuck in a stopped state the kernel's kauditd_thread() could get blocked attempting to send audit records to the userspace audit daemon. With the kernel thread blocked it is possible that the audit queue could grow unbounded as certain audit record generating events must be exempt from the queue limits else the system enter a deadlock state. This patch resolves this problem by lowering the kernel thread's socket sending timeout from MAX_SCHEDULE_TIMEOUT to HZ/10 and tweaks the kauditd_send_queue() function to better manage the various audit queues when connection problems occur between the kernel and the audit daemon. With this patch, the backlog may temporarily grow beyond the defined limits when the audit daemon is stopped and the system is under heavy audit pressure, but kauditd_thread() will continue to make progress and drain the queues as it would for other connection problems. For example, with the audit daemon put into a stopped state and the system configured to audit every syscall it was still possible to shutdown the system without a kernel panic, deadlock, etc.; granted, the system was slow to shutdown but that is to be expected given the extreme pressure of recording every syscall. The timeout value of HZ/10 was chosen primarily through experimentation and this developer's "gut feeling". There is likely no one perfect value, but as this scenario is limited in scope (root privileges would be needed to send SIGSTOP to the audit daemon), it is likely not worth exposing this as a tunable at present. This can always be done at a later date if it proves necessary. Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/75fdb751f84727d614deea0571a1490c3225d83a [No types assigned] Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/8389f50ceb854cb437fefb9330d5024ed3c7c1f5 [No types assigned] Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0d3277eabd542fb662be23696e5ec9f390d688e1 [No types assigned] Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4cc6badff97f74d0fce65f9784b5df3b64e4250b [No types assigned] Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a5f4d17daf2e6cd7c1d9676b476147f6b4ac53f2 [No types assigned] Added Reference kernel.org https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f4b3ee3c85551d2d343a3ba159304066523f730f [No types assigned]
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2021-47603
is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2021-47603
weaknesses.