Amazon Linux AMI : kernel (ALAS-2021-1516)

high Nessus Plugin ID 151521

Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux AMI host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of kernel installed on the remote host is prior to 4.14.238-125.421. It is, therefore, affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the ALAS-2021-1516 advisory.

- An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.11.11. The netfilter subsystem allows attackers to cause a denial of service (panic) because net/netfilter/x_tables.c and include/linux/netfilter/x_tables.h lack a full memory barrier upon the assignment of a new table value, aka CID-175e476b8cdf.
(CVE-2021-29650)

- kernel/bpf/verifier.c in the Linux kernel through 5.12.7 enforces incorrect limits for pointer arithmetic operations, aka CID-bb01a1bba579. This can be abused to perform out-of-bounds reads and writes in kernel memory, leading to local privilege escalation to root. In particular, there is a corner case where the off reg causes a masking direction change, which then results in an incorrect final aux->alu_limit.
(CVE-2021-33200)

- In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: dm rq: fix double free of blk_mq_tag_set in dev remove after table load fails When loading a device-mapper table for a request-based mapped device, and the allocation/initialization of the blk_mq_tag_set for the device fails, a following device remove will cause a double free. E.g. (dmesg): device-mapper: core: Cannot initialize queue for request-based dm-mq mapped device device-mapper: ioctl: unable to set up device queue for new table.
Unable to handle kernel pointer dereference in virtual kernel address space Failing address:
0305e098835de000 TEID: 0305e098835de803 Fault in home space mode while using kernel ASCE.
AS:000000025efe0007 R3:0000000000000024 Oops: 0038 ilc:3 [#1] SMP Modules linked in: ... lots of modules ... Supported: Yes, External CPU: 0 PID: 7348 Comm: multipathd Kdump: loaded Tainted: G W X 5.3.18-53-default #1 SLE15-SP3 Hardware name: IBM 8561 T01 7I2 (LPAR) Krnl PSW : 0704e00180000000 000000025e368eca (kfree+0x42/0x330) R:0 T:1 IO:1 EX:1 Key:0 M:1 W:0 P:0 AS:3 CC:2 PM:0 RI:0 EA:3 Krnl GPRS: 000000000000004a 000000025efe5230 c1773200d779968d 0000000000000000 000000025e520270 000000025e8d1b40 0000000000000003 00000007aae10000 000000025e5202a2 0000000000000001 c1773200d779968d 0305e098835de640 00000007a8170000 000003ff80138650 000000025e5202a2 000003e00396faa8 Krnl Code:
000000025e368eb8: c4180041e100 lgrl %r1,25eba50b8 000000025e368ebe: ecba06b93a55 risbg %r11,%r10,6,185,58 #000000025e368ec4: e3b010000008 ag %r11,0(%r1) >000000025e368eca: e310b0080004 lg %r1,8(%r11) 000000025e368ed0: a7110001 tmll %r1,1 000000025e368ed4: a7740129 brc 7,25e369126 000000025e368ed8:
e320b0080004 lg %r2,8(%r11) 000000025e368ede: b904001b lgr %r1,%r11 Call Trace: [<000000025e368eca>] kfree+0x42/0x330 [<000000025e5202a2>] blk_mq_free_tag_set+0x72/0xb8 [<000003ff801316a8>] dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device+0x38/0x50 [dm_mod] [<000003ff80120082>] free_dev+0x52/0xd0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff801233f0>] __dm_destroy+0x150/0x1d0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012bb9a>] dev_remove+0x162/0x1c0 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012a988>] ctl_ioctl+0x198/0x478 [dm_mod] [<000003ff8012ac8a>] dm_ctl_ioctl+0x22/0x38 [dm_mod] [<000000025e3b11ee>] ksys_ioctl+0xbe/0xe0 [<000000025e3b127a>] __s390x_sys_ioctl+0x2a/0x40 [<000000025e8c15ac>] system_call+0xd8/0x2c8 Last Breaking-Event-Address: [<000000025e52029c>] blk_mq_free_tag_set+0x6c/0xb8 Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception: panic_on_oops When allocation/initialization of the blk_mq_tag_set fails in dm_mq_init_request_queue(), it is uninitialized/freed, but the pointer is not reset to NULL; so when dev_remove() later gets into dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device() it sees the pointer and tries to uninitialize and free it again. Fix this by setting the pointer to NULL in dm_mq_init_request_queue() error-handling. Also set it to NULL in dm_mq_cleanup_mapped_device(). (CVE-2021-46938)

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'yum update kernel' to update your system.

See Also

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/ALAS-2021-1516.html

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/cve/html/CVE-2021-29650.html

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/cve/html/CVE-2021-33200.html

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/cve/html/CVE-2021-46938.html

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/faqs.html

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 151521

File Name: ala_ALAS-2021-1516.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: local

Agent: unix

Published: 7/13/2021

Updated: 4/25/2024

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 5.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-33200

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-46938

Vulnerability Information

CPE: p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo-common-i686, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-headers, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:kernel-tools-devel, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perf, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:perf-debuginfo, cpe:/o:amazon:linux

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/8/2021

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/30/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-29650, CVE-2021-33200, CVE-2021-46938

ALAS: 2021-1516