In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Revert "Revert "block, bfq: honor already-setup queue merges"" A crash [1] happened to be triggered in conjunction with commit 2d52c58b9c9b ("block, bfq: honor already-setup queue merges"). The latter was then reverted by commit ebc69e897e17 ("Revert "block, bfq: honor already-setup queue merges""). Yet, the reverted commit was not the one introducing the bug. In fact, it actually triggered a UAF introduced by a different commit, and now fixed by commit d29bd41428cf ("block, bfq: reset last_bfqq_created on group change"). So, there is no point in keeping commit 2d52c58b9c9b ("block, bfq: honor already-setup queue merges") out. This commit restores it. [1] https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=214503
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.