In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

sched/scs: Reset task stack state in bringup_cpu()

To hot unplug a CPU, the idle task on that CPU calls a few layers of C
code before finally leaving the kernel. When KASAN is in use, poisoned
shadow is left around for each of the active stack frames, and when
shadow call stacks are in use. When shadow call stacks (SCS) are in use
the task's saved SCS SP is left pointing at an arbitrary point within
the task's shadow call stack.

When a CPU is offlined than onlined back into the kernel, this stale
state can adversely affect execution. Stale KASAN shadow can alias new
stackframes and result in bogus KASAN warnings. A stale SCS SP is
effectively a memory leak, and prevents a portion of the shadow call
stack being used. Across a number of hotplug cycles the idle task's
entire shadow call stack can become unusable.

We previously fixed the KASAN issue in commit:

e1b77c92981a5222 ("sched/kasan: remove stale KASAN poison after hotplug")

... by removing any stale KASAN stack poison immediately prior to
onlining a CPU.

Subsequently in commit:

f1a0a376ca0c4ef1 ("sched/core: Initialize the idle task with preemption disabled")

... the refactoring left the KASAN and SCS cleanup in one-time idle
thread initialization code rather than something invoked prior to each
CPU being onlined, breaking both as above.

We fixed SCS (but not KASAN) in commit:

63acd42c0d4942f7 ("sched/scs: Reset the shadow stack when idle_task_exit")

... but as this runs in the context of the idle task being offlined it's
potentially fragile.

To fix these consistently and more robustly, reset the SCS SP and KASAN
shadow of a CPU's idle task immediately before we online that CPU in
bringup_cpu(). This ensures the idle task always has a consistent state
when it is running, and removes the need to so so when exiting an idle
task.

Whenever any thread is created, dup_task_struct() will give the task a
stack which is free of KASAN shadow, and initialize the task's SCS SP,
so there's no need to specially initialize either for idle thread within
init_idle(), as this was only necessary to handle hotplug cycles.

I've tested this on arm64 with:

* gcc 11.1.0, defconfig +KASAN_INLINE, KASAN_STACK
* clang 12.0.0, defconfig +KASAN_INLINE, KASAN_STACK, SHADOW_CALL_STACK

... offlining and onlining CPUS with:

| while true; do
| for C in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/online; do
| echo 0 > $C;
| echo 1 > $C;
| done
| done
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Linux

Published:

Updated: 2025-05-04T12:41:41.530Z

Reserved: 2024-05-24T15:02:54.833Z

Link: CVE-2021-47553

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2024-08-04T05:39:59.871Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2024-05-24T15:15:20.080

Modified: 2024-11-21T06:36:32.240

Link: CVE-2021-47553

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2024-05-24T00:00:00Z

Links: CVE-2021-47553 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2025-07-12T22:15:45Z