In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: net/rds: clear cp_flags bits individually in rds_conn_path_reset() rds_conn_path_reset() wipes the whole flag word with a plain cp->cp_flags = 0 store

Overview

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

net/rds: clear cp_flags bits individually in rds_conn_path_reset()

rds_conn_path_reset() wipes the whole flag word with a plain cp->cp_flags = 0 store. Every other accessor of that word uses atomic bitops, and some of them can run concurrently with the reset: RDS_LL_SEND_FULL is set from rds_send_xmit() and cleared from the transport completion paths, neither of which holds anything that excludes the shutdown worker. A plain store racing an atomic read-modify-write on the same word is a data race, and whichever side loses has its update silently discarded.

Clear the two bits the reset is actually responsible for instead. RDS_IN_XMIT and RDS_RECV_REFILL need no store at all here: they belong to the caller, rds_conn_shutdown(), which waits for both to be clear before calling the transport shutdown and this reset.

This also gives every bit in cp_flags a single well-defined writer discipline, which the following patches rely on when they turn RDS_IN_XMIT and RDS_RECV_REFILL into bit locks held across the teardown: a blanket store mid-teardown would destroy lock ownership that an atomic clear preserves.

Oracle UEK carries the same conversion ("net/rds: Preserve essential connection state flags"), motivated by its asynchronous shutdown state machine, whose progress and destroy flags must survive the reset. UEK's variant also clears RDS_IN_XMIT and RDS_RECV_REFILL because there the reset runs as the final step of a teardown that owns both bits, making those clears its unlock. Upstream that release belongs in rds_conn_shutdown(): once a later patch in this series turns the two bits into locks held across the teardown, ending ownership needs release semantics and a wake-up that a plain clear inside the reset would not provide.

Based on Oracle UEK commit "net/rds: Preserve essential connection state flags" by Gerd Rausch.

Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.