In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: scsi: qla2xxx: Fix use after free on unload System crash is observed with stack trace warning of use after free. There are 2 signals to tell dpc_thread to terminate (UNLOADING flag and kthread_stop). On setting the UNLOADING flag when dpc_thread happens to run at the time and sees the flag, this causes dpc_thread to exit and clean up itself. When kthread_stop is called for final cleanup, this causes use after free. Remove UNLOADING signal to terminate dpc_thread. Use the kthread_stop as the main signal to exit dpc_thread. [596663.812935] kernel BUG at mm/slub.c:294! [596663.812950] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [596663.812957] CPU: 13 PID: 1475935 Comm: rmmod Kdump: loaded Tainted: G IOE --------- - - 4.18.0-240.el8.x86_64 #1 [596663.812960] Hardware name: HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8, BIOS P70 08/20/2012 [596663.812974] RIP: 0010:__slab_free+0x17d/0x360 ... [596663.813008] Call Trace: [596663.813022] ? __dentry_kill+0x121/0x170 [596663.813030] ? _cond_resched+0x15/0x30 [596663.813034] ? _cond_resched+0x15/0x30 [596663.813039] ? wait_for_completion+0x35/0x190 [596663.813048] ? try_to_wake_up+0x63/0x540 [596663.813055] free_task+0x5a/0x60 [596663.813061] kthread_stop+0xf3/0x100 [596663.813103] qla2x00_remove_one+0x284/0x440 [qla2xxx]
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 Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory "belongs" to the code that operates on the new pointer.