This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled netlink: do not set cb_running if dump's start() errs to the 4.9-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: netlink-do-not-set-cb_running-if-dump-s-start-errs.patch and it can be found in the queue-4.9 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From foo@baz Wed Nov 15 17:24:03 CET 2017 From: "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2017 14:14:51 +0200 Subject: netlink: do not set cb_running if dump's start() errs From: "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@xxxxxxxxx> [ Upstream commit 41c87425a1ac9b633e0fcc78eb1f19640c8fb5a0 ] It turns out that multiple places can call netlink_dump(), which means it's still possible to dereference partially initialized values in dump() that were the result of a faulty returned start(). This fixes the issue by calling start() _before_ setting cb_running to true, so that there's no chance at all of hitting the dump() function through any indirect paths. It also moves the call to start() to be when the mutex is held. This has the nice side effect of serializing invocations to start(), which is likely desirable anyway. It also prevents any possible other races that might come out of this logic. In testing this with several different pieces of tricky code to trigger these issues, this commit fixes all avenues that I'm aware of. Signed-off-by: Jason A. Donenfeld <Jason@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: Johannes Berg <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- net/netlink/af_netlink.c | 13 +++++++------ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) --- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c +++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c @@ -2207,16 +2207,17 @@ int __netlink_dump_start(struct sock *ss cb->min_dump_alloc = control->min_dump_alloc; cb->skb = skb; + if (cb->start) { + ret = cb->start(cb); + if (ret) + goto error_unlock; + } + nlk->cb_running = true; mutex_unlock(nlk->cb_mutex); - ret = 0; - if (cb->start) - ret = cb->start(cb); - - if (!ret) - ret = netlink_dump(sk); + ret = netlink_dump(sk); sock_put(sk); Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from Jason@xxxxxxxxx are queue-4.9/netlink-do-not-set-cb_running-if-dump-s-start-errs.patch