GHSA-9368-P9R2-276C

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2025-04-14 21:32 – Updated: 2025-04-14 21:32
VLAI?
Details

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

mac80211: fix potential double free on mesh join

While commit 6a01afcf8468 ("mac80211: mesh: Free ie data when leaving mesh") fixed a memory leak on mesh leave / teardown it introduced a potential memory corruption caused by a double free when rejoining the mesh:

ieee80211_leave_mesh() -> kfree(sdata->u.mesh.ie); ... ieee80211_join_mesh() -> copy_mesh_setup() -> old_ie = ifmsh->ie; -> kfree(old_ie);

This double free / kernel panics can be reproduced by using wpa_supplicant with an encrypted mesh (if set up without encryption via "iw" then ifmsh->ie is always NULL, which avoids this issue). And then calling:

$ iw dev mesh0 mesh leave $ iw dev mesh0 mesh join my-mesh

Note that typically these commands are not used / working when using wpa_supplicant. And it seems that wpa_supplicant or wpa_cli are going through a NETDEV_DOWN/NETDEV_UP cycle between a mesh leave and mesh join where the NETDEV_UP resets the mesh.ie to NULL via a memcpy of default_mesh_setup in cfg80211_netdev_notifier_call, which then avoids the memory corruption, too.

The issue was first observed in an application which was not using wpa_supplicant but "Senf" instead, which implements its own calls to nl80211.

Fixing the issue by removing the kfree()'ing of the mesh IE in the mesh join function and leaving it solely up to the mesh leave to free the mesh IE.

Severity ?
7.8 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2022-49290"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-415"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2025-02-26T07:01:05Z",
    "severity": "HIGH"
  },
  "details": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nmac80211: fix potential double free on mesh join\n\nWhile commit 6a01afcf8468 (\"mac80211: mesh: Free ie data when leaving\nmesh\") fixed a memory leak on mesh leave / teardown it introduced a\npotential memory corruption caused by a double free when rejoining the\nmesh:\n\n  ieee80211_leave_mesh()\n  -\u003e kfree(sdata-\u003eu.mesh.ie);\n  ...\n  ieee80211_join_mesh()\n  -\u003e copy_mesh_setup()\n     -\u003e old_ie = ifmsh-\u003eie;\n     -\u003e kfree(old_ie);\n\nThis double free / kernel panics can be reproduced by using wpa_supplicant\nwith an encrypted mesh (if set up without encryption via \"iw\" then\nifmsh-\u003eie is always NULL, which avoids this issue). And then calling:\n\n  $ iw dev mesh0 mesh leave\n  $ iw dev mesh0 mesh join my-mesh\n\nNote that typically these commands are not used / working when using\nwpa_supplicant. And it seems that wpa_supplicant or wpa_cli are going\nthrough a NETDEV_DOWN/NETDEV_UP cycle between a mesh leave and mesh join\nwhere the NETDEV_UP resets the mesh.ie to NULL via a memcpy of\ndefault_mesh_setup in cfg80211_netdev_notifier_call, which then avoids\nthe memory corruption, too.\n\nThe issue was first observed in an application which was not using\nwpa_supplicant but \"Senf\" instead, which implements its own calls to\nnl80211.\n\nFixing the issue by removing the kfree()\u0027ing of the mesh IE in the mesh\njoin function and leaving it solely up to the mesh leave to free the\nmesh IE.",
  "id": "GHSA-9368-p9r2-276c",
  "modified": "2025-04-14T21:32:20Z",
  "published": "2025-04-14T21:32:20Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49290"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/12e407a8ef17623823fd0c066fbd7f103953d28d"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/273ebddc5fda2967492cb0b6cdd7d81cfb821b76"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/3bbd0000d012f92aec423b224784fbf0f7bf40f8"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/46bb87d40683337757a2f902fcd4244b32bb4e86"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4a2d4496e15ea5bb5c8e83b94ca8ca7fb045e7d3"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/582d8c60c0c053684f7138875e8150d5749ffc17"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5d3ff9542a40ce034416bca03864709540a36016"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/615716af8644813355e014314a0bc1e961250f5a"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1d9c3628ef0a0ca197595d0f9e01cd3b5dda186"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ]
}


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