CVE-2025-38001

Plain English Summary

AI-powered analysis for quick understanding

This vulnerability allows an attacker to exploit the Linux kernel's scheduling system to insert a class into a data structure twice, potentially causing the system to enter an infinite loop and prevent packet processing. To take advantage of this, the attacker must use specific configurations with the Hierarchical Fair Service Curve (HFSC) and Token Bucket Filter (TBF) settings.

Technical Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net_sched: hfsc: Address reentrant enqueue adding class to eltree twice Savino says: "We are writing to report that this recent patch (141d34391abbb315d68556b7c67ad97885407547) [1] can be bypassed, and a UAF can still occur when HFSC is utilized with NETEM. The patch only checks the cl->cl_nactive field to determine whether it is the first insertion or not [2], but this field is only incremented by init_vf [3]. By using HFSC_RSC (which uses init_ed) [4], it is possible to bypass the check and insert the class twice in the eltree. Under normal conditions, this would lead to an infinite loop in hfsc_dequeue for the reasons we already explained in this report [5]. However, if TBF is added as root qdisc and it is configured with a very low rate, it can be utilized to prevent packets from being dequeued. This behavior can be exploited to perform subsequent insertions in the HFSC eltree and cause a UAF." To fix both the UAF and the infinite loop, with netem as an hfsc child, check explicitly in hfsc_enqueue whether the class is already in the eltree whenever the HFSC_RSC flag is set. [1] https://web.git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=141d34391abbb315d68556b7c67ad97885407547 [2] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.15-rc5/source/net/sched/sch_hfsc.c#L1572 [3] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.15-rc5/source/net/sched/sch_hfsc.c#L677 [4] https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.15-rc5/source/net/sched/sch_hfsc.c#L1574 [5] https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/8DuRWwfqjoRDLDmBMlIfbrsZg9Gx50DHJc1ilxsEBNe2D6NMoigR_eIRIG0LOjMc3r10nUUZtArXx4oZBIdUfZQrwjcQhdinnMis_0G7VEk=@willsroot.io/T/#u

CVSS Vector Analysis

Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
Confidentiality ImpactNone
Integrity ImpactNone
Availability ImpactHigh
ScopeUnchanged

Vector String

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploit Resources

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Official References