Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: kernel (UTSA-2025-987050)

high Nessus Plugin ID 268082

Synopsis

The Unity Linux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The Unity Linux 20 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the UTSA-2025-987050 advisory.

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

aio: fix use-after-free due to missing POLLFREE handling

signalfd_poll() and binder_poll() are special in that they use a waitqueue whose lifetime is the current task, rather than the struct file as is normally the case. This is okay for blocking polls, since a blocking poll occurs within one task; however, non-blocking polls require another solution. This solution is for the queue to be cleared before it is freed, by sending a POLLFREE notification to all waiters.

Unfortunately, only eventpoll handles POLLFREE. A second type of non-blocking poll, aio poll, was added in kernel v4.18, and it doesn't handle POLLFREE. This allows a use-after-free to occur if a signalfd or binder fd is polled with aio poll, and the waitqueue gets freed.

Fix this by making aio poll handle POLLFREE.

A patch by Ramji Jiyani <[email protected]> (https://lore.kernel.org/r/[email protected]) tried to do this by making aio_poll_wake() always complete the request inline if POLLFREE is seen. However, that solution had two bugs.
First, it introduced a deadlock, as it unconditionally locked the aio context while holding the waitqueue lock, which inverts the normal locking order. Second, it didn't consider that POLLFREE notifications are missed while the request has been temporarily de-queued.

The second problem was solved by my previous patch. This patch then properly fixes the use-after-free by handling POLLFREE in a deadlock-free way. It does this by taking advantage of the fact that freeing of the waitqueue is RCU-delayed, similar to what eventpoll does.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Unity Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kernel package.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 268082

File Name: unity_linux_UTSA-2025-987050.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: local

Family: Unity Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 10/7/2025

Updated: 10/15/2025

Supported Sensors: Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2021-47505

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/UOS-Server/release, Host/UOS-Server/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/23/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/21/2021

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2021-47505

Detections

Analytics