linux/security/apparmor/include
Jann Horn 3f4ae5fab6 apparmor: fix cred UAF caused by begin_current_label_crit_section()
AppArmor's begin_current_label_crit_section() is a scary function called
from lots of LSM hooks (in particular VFS/socket-related ones) that checks
if the label referenced by the current creds is marked FLAG_STALE, and if
so, attempts to use aa_replace_current_label() to replace the creds with an
updated version that uses a new label.

The first problem with this is that it would directly lead to UAF of
`struct cred` if anything in the kernel takes a pointer to the current
creds and accesses these past a security hook invocation that replaces
creds, like so:
```
const struct cred *cred = current_cred();
alloc_file_pseudo(...);
uid_t uid = cred->euid;
```
I don't know if anything in the kernel actually does this, but I think it
is very surprising that this pattern could lead to UAF.

The second problem is that things go wrong when aa_replace_current_label()
runs with overridden credentials. aa_replace_current_label() bails out if
`current_cred() != current_real_cred()` (mirroring the check in
proc_pid_attr_write()), but this check can't actually reliably detect
overridden credentials because the overridden creds can be the same as the
objective creds.

So in approximately the following scenario, things go wrong:

1. task begins with <creds A> (as both objective and subjective creds),
   with refcount=2
2. task grabs an extra reference on <creds A> for overriding
3. task calls override_creds(<creds A>), which returns a pointer to the old
   subjective creds (<creds A>)
4. task enters AppArmor LSM hook
5. AppArmor checks that objective/subjective creds are equal
6. AppArmor replaces both cred pointers with <creds B> and drops 2 refs on
   <creds A>
7. task leaves AppArmor LSM hook
8. task calls revert_creds(<creds A>)
9. now task->cred is <creds A> while task->real_cred is <creds B>, but the
   task_struct logically holds two references to <creds B>
10. another task drops the extra reference on <creds A> that was used for
    overriding, refcount drops to 0
11. now task->real_cred points to freed creds

At this point, any access to current_cred() will be UAF.

I have a test case where I run aa-disable on a profile while a process
using that profile is blocked on splice() from a FUSE passthrough file into
a full pipe; after the profile update, the pipe becomes empty, splice()
resumes, the credentials go out of sync, and a subsequent getuid() syscall
results in a KASAN UAF splat.

To fix this, instead of directly replacing creds, do it via task_work that
will run at the end of the current syscall. (The point in time at which the
cred replacement happens should have no correctness impact; it is just a
performance optimization to avoid unnecessarily touching the refcount of
the new label.)

Note that AppArmor still performs direct cred replacements in the
sb_pivotroot LSM hook after this change, and that direct cred replacements
can still happen in VFS ->write() callbacks via proc_pid_attr_write().

There are two options for what to do with aa_dup_task_ctx(): Either
explicitly reset new->label_replacement_pending after the entire
aa_task_ctx has been copied, or switch to manually copying members over.
I am switching to manually copying members over because that should make
bugs more obvious.

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: c75afcd153 ("AppArmor: contexts used in attaching policy to system objects")
Signed-off-by: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Signed-off-by: John Johansen <john.johansen@canonical.com>
2026-08-06 16:15:33 -07:00
..
af_unix.h apparmor: fix regression in fs based unix sockets when using old abi 2025-07-15 22:39:43 -07:00
apparmor.h apparmor: add fine grained af_unix mediation 2025-01-18 06:47:12 -08:00
apparmorfs.h apparmor: make include headers self-contained 2026-06-29 10:26:36 -07:00
audit.h apparmor: add support loading per permission tagging 2026-01-29 01:27:47 -08:00
capability.h apparmor: make include headers self-contained 2026-06-29 10:26:36 -07:00
cred.h apparmor: fix cred UAF caused by begin_current_label_crit_section() 2026-08-06 16:15:33 -07:00
crypto.h apparmor: move initcalls to the LSM framework 2025-10-22 19:24:27 -04:00
domain.h apparmor: extend permissions to support a label and tag string 2022-10-03 14:49:03 -07:00
file.h apparmor: fix some kernel-doc issues in header files 2025-05-17 01:52:25 -07:00
ipc.h apparmor: add support for profiles to define the kill signal 2025-01-18 06:47:12 -08:00
label.h apparmor: add a conditional version of get_newest_label 2026-06-13 20:14:06 -07:00
lib.h apparmor: make fn_label_build() capable of handling not supported 2026-06-13 20:14:07 -07:00
match.h apparmor: fix differential encoding verification 2026-03-09 16:05:43 -07:00
mount.h apparmor: Fix regression in mount mediation 2023-10-18 16:01:32 -07:00
net.h apparmor: make sure unix socket labeling is correctly updated. 2025-07-20 02:19:27 -07:00
path.h apparmor: make include headers self-contained 2026-06-29 10:26:36 -07:00
perms.h apparmor: fix some kernel-doc issues in header files 2025-05-17 01:52:25 -07:00
policy_compat.h apparmor: isolate policy backwards compatibility to its own file 2022-10-03 14:49:03 -07:00
policy_ns.h apparmor: fix: limit the number of levels of policy namespaces 2026-03-09 16:05:43 -07:00
policy_unpack.h apparmor: Initial support for compressed policies 2026-06-29 10:27:02 -07:00
policy.h apparmor: Initial support for compressed policies 2026-06-29 10:27:02 -07:00
procattr.h apparmor: make include headers self-contained 2026-06-29 10:26:36 -07:00
resource.h apparmor: pass cred through to audit info. 2023-10-18 15:30:38 -07:00
secid.h lsm: replace context+len with lsm_context 2024-12-04 14:42:31 -05:00
sig_names.h apparmor: add support for profiles to define the kill signal 2025-01-18 06:47:12 -08:00
signal.h apparmor: add support for profiles to define the kill signal 2025-01-18 06:47:12 -08:00
task.h apparmor: fix cred UAF caused by begin_current_label_crit_section() 2026-08-06 16:15:33 -07:00