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Medium · 5.5 CVE-2024-53219 EUVD-2024-51891GHSA-8r65-896m-pfq8

virtiofs: use pages instead of pointer for kernel direct IO

Published Dec 27, 2024 · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-iot Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.8 Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

virtiofs: use pages instead of pointer for kernel direct IO

When trying to insert a 10MB kernel module kept in a virtio-fs with cache
disabled, the following warning was reported:

------------[ cut here ]------------
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 404 at mm/page_alloc.c:4551 ......
Modules linked in:
CPU: 1 PID: 404 Comm: insmod Not tainted 6.9.0-rc5+ #123
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) ......
RIP: 0010:__alloc_pages+0x2bf/0x380
......
Call Trace:
<TASK>
? __warn+0x8e/0x150
? __alloc_pages+0x2bf/0x380
__kmalloc_large_node+0x86/0x160
__kmalloc+0x33c/0x480
virtio_fs_enqueue_req+0x240/0x6d0
virtio_fs_wake_pending_and_unlock+0x7f/0x190
queue_request_and_unlock+0x55/0x60
fuse_simple_request+0x152/0x2b0
fuse_direct_io+0x5d2/0x8c0
fuse_file_read_iter+0x121/0x160
__kernel_read+0x151/0x2d0
kernel_read+0x45/0x50
kernel_read_file+0x1a9/0x2a0
init_module_from_file+0x6a/0xe0
idempotent_init_module+0x175/0x230
__x64_sys_finit_module+0x5d/0xb0
x64_sys_call+0x1c3/0x9e0
do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xc0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53
......
</TASK>
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

The warning is triggered as follows:

1) syscall finit_module() handles the module insertion and it invokes
kernel_read_file() to read the content of the module first.

2) kernel_read_file() allocates a 10MB buffer by using vmalloc() and
passes it to kernel_read(). kernel_read() constructs a kvec iter by
using iov_iter_kvec() and passes it to fuse_file_read_iter().

3) virtio-fs disables the cache, so fuse_file_read_iter() invokes
fuse_direct_io(). As for now, the maximal read size for kvec iter is
only limited by fc->max_read. For virtio-fs, max_read is UINT_MAX, so
fuse_direct_io() doesn't split the 10MB buffer. It saves the address and
the size of the 10MB-sized buffer in out_args[0] of a fuse request and
passes the fuse request to virtio_fs_wake_pending_and_unlock().

4) virtio_fs_wake_pending_and_unlock() uses virtio_fs_enqueue_req() to
queue the request. Because virtiofs need DMA-able address, so
virtio_fs_enqueue_req() uses kmalloc() to allocate a bounce buffer for
all fuse args, copies these args into the bounce buffer and passed the
physical address of the bounce buffer to virtiofsd. The total length of
these fuse args for the passed fuse request is about 10MB, so
copy_args_to_argbuf() invokes kmalloc() with a 10MB size parameter and
it triggers the warning in __alloc_pages():

if (WARN_ON_ONCE_GFP(order > MAX_PAGE_ORDER, gfp))
return NULL;

5) virtio_fs_enqueue_req() will retry the memory allocation in a
kworker, but it won't help, because kmalloc() will always return NULL
due to the abnormal size and finit_module() will hang forever.

A feasible solution is to limit the value of max_read for virtio-fs, so
the length passed to kmalloc() will be limited. However it will affect
the maximal read size for normal read. And for virtio-fs write initiated
from kernel, it has the similar problem but now there is no way to limit
fc->max_write in kernel.

So instead of limiting both the values of max_read and max_write in
kernel, introducing use_pages_for_kvec_io in fuse_conn and setting it as
true in virtiofs. When use_pages_for_kvec_io is enabled, fuse will use
pages instead of pointer to pass the KVEC_IO data.

After switching to pages for KVEC_IO data, these pages will be used for
DMA through virtio-fs. If these pages are backed by vmalloc(),
{flush|invalidate}_kernel_vmap_range() are necessary to flush or
invalidate the cache before the DMA operation. So add two new fields in
fuse_args_pages to record the base address of vmalloc area and the
condition indicating whether invalidation is needed. Perform the flush
in fuse_get_user_pages() for write operations and the invalidation in
fuse_release_user_pages() for read operations.

It may seem necessary to introduce another fie
---truncated---

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.4 6.6.160

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 6.12.3-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.3-1 —
Debian 12 linux No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-58.60 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1027.29 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1027.32 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-6.11 6.11.0-1012.12~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-nvidia 6.8.0-1014.15 USN-7468-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1028.30 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.11 6.11.0-1011.11~24.04.1 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1023.27 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1010.12 USN-7450-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1024.24 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1026.29 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.11 6.11.0-1007.7 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1026.29.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 6.8.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.11 6.11.0-1015.15 USN-7310-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oem-6.8 6.8.0-1026.26 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1024.25 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1028.32 USN-7524-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +1 6.8.0-58.60.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-xilinx 6.8.0-1017.18 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1027.29~22.04.1 USN-7451-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1027.32~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1028.30~22.04.1 USN-7452-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-58.60~22.04.1 USN-7449-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1024.24~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1026.29~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1024.25~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.8 +1 6.8.0-58.60.1~22.04.1 USN-7449-1
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Show 10 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2023.24 USN-7523-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1020.21 USN-7453-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1020.21~22.04.1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips 6.8.0-78.78+fips1 —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux +21 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS linux-aws-5.4 +6 No fix yet —

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel No fix yet —
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) kernel No fix yet —

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 kernel-uek +34 6.12.0-101.33.4.3.el10uek ELSA-2025-20530, ELSA-2025-20480

Advisories 13

References