CVE-2023-53311

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

nilfs2: fix use-after-free of nilfs_root in dirtying inodes via iput

During unmount process of nilfs2, nothing holds nilfs_root structure after
nilfs2 detaches its writer in nilfs_detach_log_writer(). Previously,
nilfs_evict_inode() could cause use-after-free read for nilfs_root if
inodes are left in “garbage_list” and released by nilfs_dispose_list at
the end of nilfs_detach_log_writer(), and this bug was fixed by commit
9b5a04ac3ad9 (“nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of nilfs_root in
nilfs_evict_inode()”).

However, it turned out that there is another possibility of UAF in the
call path where mark_inode_dirty_sync() is called from iput():

nilfs_detach_log_writer()
nilfs_dispose_list()
iput()
mark_inode_dirty_sync()
__mark_inode_dirty()
nilfs_dirty_inode()
__nilfs_mark_inode_dirty()
nilfs_load_inode_block() –> causes UAF of nilfs_root struct

This can happen after commit 0ae45f63d4ef (“vfs: add support for a
lazytime mount option”), which changed iput() to call
mark_inode_dirty_sync() on its final reference if i_state has I_DIRTY_TIME
flag and i_nlink is non-zero.

This issue appears after commit 28a65b49eb53 (“nilfs2: do not write dirty
data after degenerating to read-only”) when using the syzbot reproducer,
but the issue has potentially existed before.

Fix this issue by adding a “purging flag” to the nilfs structure, setting
that flag while disposing the “garbage_list” and checking it in
__nilfs_mark_inode_dirty().

Unlike commit 9b5a04ac3ad9 (“nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of nilfs_root
in nilfs_evict_inode()”), this patch does not rely on ns_writer to
determine whether to skip operations, so as not to break recovery on
mount. The nilfs_salvage_orphan_logs routine dirties the buffer of
salvaged data before attaching the log writer, so changing
__nilfs_mark_inode_dirty() to skip the operation when ns_writer is NULL
will cause recovery write to fail. The purpose of using the cleanup-only
flag is to allow for narrowing of such conditions.