Unity Linux 20.1070e Security Update: kernel (UTSA-2025-990786)

high Nessus Plugin ID 275068

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-2025-990786 advisory.

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

nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of ns_writer on remount

If a nilfs2 filesystem is downgraded to read-only due to metadata corruption on disk and is remounted read/write, or if emergency read-only remount is performed, detaching a log writer and synchronizing the filesystem can be done at the same time.

In these cases, use-after-free of the log writer (hereinafter nilfs->ns_writer) can happen as shown in the scenario below:

Task1 Task2
-------------------------------- ------------------------------ nilfs_construct_segment nilfs_segctor_sync init_wait init_waitqueue_entry add_wait_queue schedule nilfs_remount (R/W remount case) nilfs_attach_log_writer nilfs_detach_log_writer nilfs_segctor_destroy kfree finish_wait
_raw_spin_lock_irqsave
__raw_spin_lock_irqsave do_raw_spin_lock debug_spin_lock_before <-- use-after-free

While Task1 is sleeping, nilfs->ns_writer is freed by Task2. After Task1 waked up, Task1 accesses nilfs->ns_writer which is already freed. This scenario diagram is based on the Shigeru Yoshida's post [1].

This patch fixes the issue by not detaching nilfs->ns_writer on remount so that this UAF race doesn't happen. Along with this change, this patch also inserts a few necessary read-only checks with superblock instance where only the ns_writer pointer was used to check if the filesystem is read-only.

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.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?e155a46b

http://www.nessus.org/u?e5f26f09

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49834

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 275068

File Name: unity_linux_UTSA-2025-990786.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: local

Published: 11/12/2025

Updated: 11/12/2025

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-2022-49834

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: 11/12/2025

Vulnerability Publication Date: 12/8/2022

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2022-49834