[PATCH v2] certs: x509: duplicate cert->tbs when sig->algo_takes_data is set
From: Hui Peng
Date: Sun Sep 20 2026 - 19:53:26 EST
In x509_get_sig_params(), when sig->algo_takes_data is true, sig->m is
assigned (u8 *)cert->tbs with sig->m_free = false. However, cert->tbs
points into the temporary ASN.1 buffer (prep->data) passed to
x509_cert_parse(), while cert->sig is retained in
prep->payload.data[asym_auth] by x509_key_preparse() after prep->data
is freed by the caller. Subsequent signature verification on the key's
public_key_signature dereferences the freed TBS buffer.
Duplicate cert->tbs with kmemdup() and set sig->m_free = true so sig->m
remains valid for the lifetime of struct public_key_signature.
Tested in QEMU against Linux 7.3.0-rc3 with KASAN enabled by adding an
ML-DSA-44 (OID 2.16.840.1.101.3.4.3.17) X.509 certificate via
add_key("asymmetric", ...) and linking it into a signature-restricted
keyring via keyctl(KEYCTL_LINK), which triggers the following KASAN
slab-use-after-free before this patch:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in mldsa_verify+0x95/0xa0 [mldsa]
Read of size 1 at addr ffff88800108c004 by task init/1
Call Trace:
<TASK>
dump_stack_lvl+0x70/0xa0
print_report+0x153/0x4c6
kasan_report+0xf1/0x120
mldsa_verify+0x95/0xa0 [mldsa]
public_key_verify_signature+0x5cb/0x8e0
verify_signature+0xe4/0x130
key_or_keyring_common+0x428/0x850
key_link+0x22e/0x360
keyctl_keyring_link+0x6b/0xc0
__do_sys_keyctl+0x146/0x4f0
do_syscall_64+0xda/0x4b0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
</TASK>
Allocated by task 1:
kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50
kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
__kasan_kmalloc+0x7f/0x90
__kvmalloc_node_noprof+0x1c2/0x5b0
__do_sys_add_key+0x1c2/0x390
do_syscall_64+0xda/0x4b0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
Freed by task 1:
kasan_save_stack+0x30/0x50
kasan_save_track+0x14/0x30
kasan_save_free_info+0x3b/0x70
__kasan_slab_free+0x47/0x70
kfree+0x159/0x420
__do_sys_add_key+0x2b3/0x390
do_syscall_64+0xda/0x4b0
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff88800108c000
which belongs to the cache kmalloc-4k of size 4096
The buggy address is located 4 bytes inside of
freed 4096-byte region [ffff88800108c000, ffff88800108d000)
Fixes: f3eccecd782d ("pkcs7: Allow the signing algo to do whatever digestion it wants itself")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Hui Peng <benquike@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Dropped the net/netlabel/netlabel_calipso.c change, keeping only the
crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c fix.
- Added the KASAN slab-use-after-free report and test description to the
commit message.
crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c | 6 ++++--
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c
index 25cf8ac7f257..5c9165a83f91 100644
--- a/crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c
+++ b/crypto/asymmetric_keys/x509_public_key.c
@@ -53,9 +53,11 @@ int x509_get_sig_params(struct x509_certificate *cert)
if (sig->algo_takes_data) {
/* The signature algorithm does whatever passes for hashing. */
- sig->m = (u8 *)cert->tbs;
+ sig->m = kmemdup(cert->tbs, cert->tbs_size, GFP_KERNEL);
+ if (!sig->m)
+ return -ENOMEM;
sig->m_size = cert->tbs_size;
- sig->m_free = false;
+ sig->m_free = true;
goto out;
}
--
2.47.3