CVE-2024-58057: idpf: convert workqueues to unbound

Published Mar 6, 2025
·
Updated

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

idpf: convert workqueues to unbound

When a workqueue is created with WQUNBOUND, its work items are served by special worker-pools, whose host workers are not bound to any specific CPU. In the default configuration (i.e. when queuedelayedwork and friends do not specify which CPU to run the work item on), WQUNBOUND allows the work item to be executed on any CPU in the same node of the CPU it was enqueued on. While this solution potentially sacrifices locality, it avoids contention with other processes that might dominate the CPU time of the processor the work item was scheduled on.

This is not just a theoretical problem: in a particular scenario misconfigured process was hogging most of the time from CPU0, leaving less than 0.5% of its CPU time to the kworker. The IDPF workqueues that were using the kworker on CPU0 suffered large completion delays as a result, causing performance degradation, timeouts and eventual system crash.

I have also run a manual test to gauge the performance improvement. The test consists of an antagonist process (./stress --cpu 2) consuming as much of CPU 0 as possible. This process is run under taskset 01 to bind it to CPU0, and its priority is changed with chrt -pQ 9900 10000 ${pid} and renice -n -20 ${pid} after start.

Then, the IDPF driver is forced to prefer CPU0 by editing all calls to queuedelayedwork, moddelayedwork, etc... to use CPU 0.

Finally, ktraces for the workqueue events are collected.

Without the current patch, the antagonist process can force arbitrary delays between workqueuequeuework and workqueueexecutestart, that in my tests were as high as 30ms. With the current patch applied, the workqueue can be migrated to another unloaded CPU in the same node, and, keeping everything else equal, the maximum delay I could see was 6us.

Affected Software

7 affected components
Linux Linux kernel
Linux Linux kernel>=6.7<6.12.13
Linux Linux kernel>=6.13<6.13.2
IBM Verify Identity Access<=11.0 - 11.0.2
IBM Security Verify Access<=10.0 - 10.0.9.1
IBM Verify Identity Access Container<=11.0 - 11.0.2
IBM Security Verify Access Container<=10.0 - 10.0.9.1

Event History

Mar 6, 2025
CVE Published
via MITRE·03:54 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·03:54 PM
Description
Data Sourced
via Red Hat·04:02 PM
DescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Data Sourced
via NVD·04:15 PM
RemedyDescriptionSeverityAffected Software
Jul 8, 2026
Data Sourced
via IBM·12:00 AM
DescriptionAffected Software

Parent advisories

This vulnerability appears in the following advisories.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2024-58057?

CVE-2024-58057 has been classified as a medium severity vulnerability in the Linux kernel.

2

How do I fix CVE-2024-58057?

To resolve CVE-2024-58057, update your Linux kernel to the latest version that includes the patched workqueue functionality.

3

What are the potential impacts of CVE-2024-58057?

CVE-2024-58057 could lead to issues with CPU resource management and performance degradation in systems using unbound workqueues.

4

Which versions of the Linux kernel are affected by CVE-2024-58057?

CVE-2024-58057 affects various versions of the Linux kernel prior to the fixes implemented in recent updates.

5

Is CVE-2024-58057 exploitable remotely?

CVE-2024-58057 is generally considered not to be remotely exploitable but may pose risks to local privilege escalation.

Contact

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