In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: RDMA/iwcm: Fix WARNING:at_kernel/workqueue.c:#check_flush_dependency In the commit aee2424246f9 ("RDMA/iwcm: Fix a use-after-free related to destroying CM IDs"), the function flush_workqueue is invoked to flush the work queue iwcm_wq. But at that time, the work queue iwcm_wq was created via the function alloc_ordered_workqueue without the flag WQ_MEM_RECLAIM. Because the current process is trying to flush the whole iwcm_wq, if iwcm_wq doesn't have the flag WQ_MEM_RECLAIM, verify that the current process is not reclaiming memory or running on a workqueue which doesn't have the flag WQ_MEM_RECLAIM as that can break forward-progress guarantee leading to a deadlock. The call trace is as below: [ 125.350876][ T1430] Call Trace: [ 125.356281][ T1430] <TASK> [ 125.361285][ T1430] ? __warn (kernel/panic.c:693) [ 125.367640][ T1430] ? check_flush_dependency (kernel/workqueue.c:3706 (discriminator 9)) [ 125.375689][ T1430] ? report_bug (lib/bug.c:180 lib/bug.c:219) [ 125.382505][ T1430] ? handle_bug (arch/x86/kernel/traps.c:239) [ 125.388987][ T1430] ? exc_invalid_op (arch/x86/kernel/traps.c:260 (discriminator 1)) [ 125.395831][ T1430] ? asm_exc_invalid_op (arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:621) [ 125.403125][ T1430] ? check_flush_dependency (kernel/workqueue.c:3706 (discriminator 9)) [ 125.410984][ T1430] ? check_flush_dependency (kernel/workqueue.c:3706 (discriminator 9)) [ 125.418764][ T1430] __flush_workqueue (kernel/workqueue.c:3970) [ 125.426021][ T1430] ? __pfx___might_resched (kernel/sched/core.c:10151) [ 125.433431][ T1430] ? destroy_cm_id (drivers/infiniband/core/iwcm.c:375) iw_cm [ 125.441209][ T1430] ? __pfx___flush_workqueue (kernel/workqueue.c:3910) [ 125.473900][ T1430] ? _raw_spin_lock_irqsave (arch/x86/include/asm/atomic.h:107 include/linux/atomic/atomic-arch-fallback.h:2170 include/linux/atomic/atomic-instrumented.h:1302 include/asm-generic/qspinlock.h:111 include/linux/spinlock.h:187 include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:111 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:162) [ 125.473909][ T1430] ? __pfx__raw_spin_lock_irqsave (kernel/locking/spinlock.c:161) [ 125.482537][ T1430] _destroy_id (drivers/infiniband/core/cma.c:2044) rdma_cm [ 125.495072][ T1430] nvme_rdma_free_queue (drivers/nvme/host/rdma.c:656 drivers/nvme/host/rdma.c:650) nvme_rdma [ 125.505827][ T1430] nvme_rdma_reset_ctrl_work (drivers/nvme/host/rdma.c:2180) nvme_rdma [ 125.505831][ T1430] process_one_work (kernel/workqueue.c:3231) [ 125.515122][ T1430] worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3306 kernel/workqueue.c:3393) [ 125.515127][ T1430] ? __pfx_worker_thread (kernel/workqueue.c:3339) [ 125.531837][ T1430] kthread (kernel/kthread.c:389) [ 125.539864][ T1430] ? __pfx_kthread (kernel/kthread.c:342) [ 125.550628][ T1430] ret_from_fork (arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147) [ 125.558840][ T1430] ? __pfx_kthread (kernel/kthread.c:342) [ 125.558844][ T1430] ret_from_fork_asm (arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:257) [ 125.566487][ T1430] </TASK> [ 125.566488][ T1430] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
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.