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

KVM: PPC: Book3S HV: Prevent UAF in kvm_spapr_tce_attach_iommu_group()

Al reported a possible use-after-free (UAF) in kvm_spapr_tce_attach_iommu_group().

It looks up stt from tablefd, but then continues to use it after doing
fdput() on the returned fd. After the fdput() the tablefd is free to be
closed by another thread. The close calls kvm_spapr_tce_release() and
then release_spapr_tce_table() (via call_rcu()) which frees stt.

Although there are calls to rcu_read_lock() in
kvm_spapr_tce_attach_iommu_group() they are not sufficient to prevent
the UAF, because stt is used outside the locked regions.

With an artifcial delay after the fdput() and a userspace program which
triggers the race, KASAN detects the UAF:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in kvm_spapr_tce_attach_iommu_group+0x298/0x720 [kvm]
Read of size 4 at addr c000200027552c30 by task kvm-vfio/2505
CPU: 54 PID: 2505 Comm: kvm-vfio Not tainted 6.10.0-rc3-next-20240612-dirty #1
Hardware name: 8335-GTH POWER9 0x4e1202 opal:skiboot-v6.5.3-35-g1851b2a06 PowerNV
Call Trace:

dump_stack_lvl+0xb4/0x108 (unreliable)
print_report+0x2b4/0x6ec
kasan_report+0x118/0x2b0
__asan_load4+0xb8/0xd0
kvm_spapr_tce_attach_iommu_group+0x298/0x720 [kvm]
kvm_vfio_set_attr+0x524/0xac0 [kvm]
kvm_device_ioctl+0x144/0x240 [kvm]
sys_ioctl+0x62c/0x1810
system_call_exception+0x190/0x440
system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec

…
Freed by task 0:
…
kfree+0xec/0x3e0
release_spapr_tce_table+0xd4/0x11c [kvm]
rcu_core+0x568/0x16a0
handle_softirqs+0x23c/0x920
do_softirq_own_stack+0x6c/0x90
do_softirq_own_stack+0x58/0x90
__irq_exit_rcu+0x218/0x2d0
irq_exit+0x30/0x80
arch_local_irq_restore+0x128/0x230
arch_local_irq_enable+0x1c/0x30
cpuidle_enter_state+0x134/0x5cc
cpuidle_enter+0x6c/0xb0
call_cpuidle+0x7c/0x100
do_idle+0x394/0x410
cpu_startup_entry+0x60/0x70
start_secondary+0x3fc/0x410
start_secondary_prolog+0x10/0x14

Fix it by delaying the fdput() until stt is no longer in use, which
is effectively the entire function. To keep the patch minimal add a call
to fdput() at each of the existing return paths. Future work can convert
the function to goto or __cleanup style cleanup.

With the fix in place the test case no longer triggers the UAF.