In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
powerpc: Fix virt_addr_valid() for 64-bit Book3E & 32-bit
mpe: On 64-bit Book3E vmalloc space starts at 0x8000000000000000.
Because of the way __pa() works we have:
__pa(0x8000000000000000) == 0, and therefore
virt_to_pfn(0x8000000000000000) == 0, and therefore
virt_addr_valid(0x8000000000000000) == true
Which is wrong, virt_addr_valid() should be false for vmalloc space.
In fact all vmalloc addresses that alias with a valid PFN will return
true from virt_addr_valid(). That can cause bugs with hardened usercopy
as described below by Kefeng Wang:
When running ethtool eth0 on 64-bit Book3E, a BUG occurred:
usercopy: Kernel memory exposure attempt detected from SLUB object not in SLUB page?! (offset 0, size 1048)!
kernel BUG at mm/usercopy.c:99
...
usercopy_abort+0x64/0xa0 (unreliable)
__check_heap_object+0x168/0x190
__check_object_size+0x1a0/0x200
dev_ethtool+0x2494/0x2b20
dev_ioctl+0x5d0/0x770
sock_do_ioctl+0xf0/0x1d0
sock_ioctl+0x3ec/0x5a0
__se_sys_ioctl+0xf0/0x160
system_call_exception+0xfc/0x1f0
system_call_common+0xf8/0x200
The code shows below,
data = vzalloc(array_size(gstrings.len, ETH_GSTRING_LEN));
copy_to_user(useraddr, data, gstrings.len * ETH_GSTRING_LEN))
The data is alloced by vmalloc(), virt_addr_valid(ptr) will return true
on 64-bit Book3E, which leads to the panic.
As commit 4dd7554a6456 ("powerpc/64: Add VIRTUAL_BUG_ON checks for __va
and __pa addresses") does, make sure the virt addr above PAGE_OFFSET in
the virt_addr_valid() for 64-bit, also add upper limit check to make
sure the virt is below high_memory.
Meanwhile, for 32-bit PAGE_OFFSET is the virtual address of the start
of lowmem, high_memory is the upper low virtual address, the check is
suitable for 32-bit, this will fix the issue mentioned in commit
602946ec2f90 ("powerpc: Set max_mapnr correctly") too.
On 32-bit there is a similar problem with high memory, that was fixed in
commit 602946ec2f90 ("powerpc: Set max_mapnr correctly"), but that
commit breaks highmem and needs to be reverted.
We can't easily fix __pa(), we have code that relies on its current
behaviour. So for now add extra checks to virt_addr_valid().
For 64-bit Book3S the extra checks are not necessary, the combination of
virt_to_pfn() and pfn_valid() should yield the correct result, but they
are harmless.
[mpe: Add additional change log detail]
Publication date: Wed, 26 Feb 2025 01:54:00 +0000