In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
can: bcm: defer rx_op deallocation to workqueue to fix thrtimer UAF
Commit f1b4e32aca08 (“can: bcm: use call_rcu() instead of costly
synchronize_rcu()”) replaced synchronize_rcu() in bcm_delete_rx_op()
with call_rcu() and introduced the RX_NO_AUTOTIMER flag.
However, this flag check was omitted for thrtimer in the packet rx
fast-path. During BCM RX operation teardown, a concurrent RCU reader
(bcm_rx_handler) can race and re-arm thrtimer via
bcm_rx_update_and_send() after call_rcu() has been scheduled. Once
the RCU grace period elapses, bcm_op is freed. The subsequently
firing thrtimer then dereferences the deallocated op, causing a UAF.
Adding flag checks to the rx fast-path (bcm_rx_update_and_send) does not
fully close the TOCTOU race and introduces latency for every CAN frame.
Conversely, calling hrtimer_cancel() directly inside the RCU callback
(softirq context) is fatal as hrtimer_cancel() can sleep, triggering
a “scheduling while atomic” panic.
Resolve this by deferring the timer cancellation and memory free to a
dedicated unbound workqueue (bcm_wq). The RCU callback now queues a
work item to bcm_wq, which safely cancels both timers and deallocates
memory in sleepable process context. A dedicated workqueue is used to
prevent system-wide WQ saturation and is cleanly flushed/destroyed
on module unload to avoid rmmod page faults.
Since the deferred work can now outlive the calling context by an
unbounded amount, also take a reference on op->sk when it is assigned
and drop it only once the deferred work has cancelled both timers, so a
socket can no longer be freed out from under a still-armed timer whose
callback (bcm_send_to_user()) dereferences op->sk.
