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

tracing/timerlat: Move hrtimer_init to timerlat_fd open()

Currently, the timerlat’s hrtimer is initialized at the first read of
timerlat_fd, and destroyed at close(). It works, but it causes an error
if the user program open() and close() the file without reading.

Here’s an example:

# echo NO_OSNOISE_WORKLOAD > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/osnoise/options
# echo timerlat > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/current_tracer

# cat <<EOF > ./timerlat_load.py
# !/usr/bin/env python3

timerlat_fd = open(“/sys/kernel/tracing/osnoise/per_cpu/cpu0/timerlat_fd”, ‘r’)
timerlat_fd.close();
EOF

# ./taskset -c 0 ./timerlat_load.py
<BOOM>

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) – not-present page
PGD 0 P4D 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
CPU: 1 PID: 2673 Comm: python3 Not tainted 6.6.13-200.fc39.x86_64 #1
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-1.fc39 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:hrtimer_active+0xd/0x50
Code: 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 f3 0f 1e fa 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 8b 57 30 <8b> 42 10 a8 01 74 09 f3 90 8b 42 10 a8 01 75 f7 80 7f 38 00 75 1d
RSP: 0018:ffffb031009b7e10 EFLAGS: 00010286
RAX: 000000000002db00 RBX: ffff9118f786db08 RCX: 0000000000000000
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff9117a0e64400 RDI: ffff9118f786db08
RBP: ffff9118f786db80 R08: ffff9117a0ddd420 R09: ffff9117804d4f70
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff9118f786db08
R13: ffff91178fdd5e20 R14: ffff9117840978c0 R15: 0000000000000000
FS: 00007f2ffbab1740(0000) GS:ffff9118f7840000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000000000000010 CR3: 00000001b402e000 CR4: 0000000000750ee0
PKRU: 55555554
Call Trace:
<TASK>
? __die+0x23/0x70
? page_fault_oops+0x171/0x4e0
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? avc_has_extended_perms+0x237/0x520
? exc_page_fault+0x7f/0x180
? asm_exc_page_fault+0x26/0x30
? hrtimer_active+0xd/0x50
hrtimer_cancel+0x15/0x40
timerlat_fd_release+0x48/0xe0
__fput+0xf5/0x290
__x64_sys_close+0x3d/0x80
do_syscall_64+0x60/0x90
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? __x64_sys_ioctl+0x72/0xd0
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x2b/0x40
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? do_syscall_64+0x6c/0x90
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? exit_to_user_mode_prepare+0x142/0x1f0
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x2b/0x40
? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0x7f
? do_syscall_64+0x6c/0x90
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6e/0xd8
RIP: 0033:0x7f2ffb321594
Code: 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 80 3d d5 cd 0d 00 00 74 13 b8 03 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff 77 3c c3 0f 1f 00 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 10 89 7d
RSP: 002b:00007ffe8d8eef18 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000003
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f2ffba4e668 RCX: 00007f2ffb321594
RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 0000000000000003
RBP: 00007ffe8d8eef40 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 55c926e3167eae79 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000003
R13: 00007ffe8d8ef030 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00007f2ffba4e668
</TASK>
CR2: 0000000000000010
—–[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]—-

Move hrtimer_init to timerlat_fd open() to avoid this problem.