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Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2017 09:36:17 -0700
From: Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>
To: PaX Team <pageexec@...email.hu>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
Eric Biggers <ebiggers3@...il.com>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
"axboe@...nel.dk" <axboe@...nel.dk>, James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senpartnership.com>,
Elena Reshetova <elena.reshetova@...el.com>, Hans Liljestrand <ishkamiel@...il.com>,
David Windsor <dwindsor@...il.com>, "x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>, Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>, Jann Horn <jann@...jh.net>,
"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>, linux-arch <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>,
"kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com" <kernel-hardening@...ts.openwall.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] x86/refcount: Implement fast refcount_t handling
On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 4:26 AM, PaX Team <pageexec@...email.hu> wrote:
> On 25 Apr 2017 at 0:01, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
>> How is the below not useful fodder for an exploit? It might be a less
>> common bug, and perhaps a bit more fiddly to make work, but afaict its
>> still a full use-after-free and therefore useful.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Thread-A Thread-B
>>
>> if(dec_and_test(&obj->ref)) { // true, ref==0
>>
>> inc(&obj->ref) // ref: 0->1
>>
>> kfree(obj);
>> }
>
> ... and tell me why an attacker would let Thread-B do that increment
> (that you're trying to detect) *before* the underlying memory gets
> reused and thus the 0 changed to something else? hint: he'll do everything
> in his power to prevent that, either by winning the race or if there's
> no race (no refcount users outside his control), he'll win every time.
> IOW, checking for 0 is pointless and you kinda proved it yourself now.
Right, having a deterministic protection (checking for overflow) is
best since it stops all exploits using that path. Hoping that an
attacker is unlucky and hits a notification after they've already
landed their corruption is not a very useful defense. It certainly has
a non-zero value, but stopping overflow 100% is better. Especially
when we can do it with no meaningful change in performance which lets
us actually do the atomic_t -> refcount_t conversion everywhere.
-Kees
--
Kees Cook
Pixel Security
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