x86/microcode/AMD: Fix out-of-bounds on systems with CPU-less NUMA nodes
CVE: CVE-2025-21991
Component: kernel
CWE: CWE-787
Severity: Moderate
CVSS v3: 7.4/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Release date: 2025-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

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

x86/microcode/AMD: Fix out-of-bounds on systems with CPU-less NUMA nodes

Currently, load_microcode_amd() iterates over all NUMA nodes, retrieves their
CPU masks and unconditionally accesses per-CPU data for the first CPU of each
mask.

According to Documentation/admin-guide/mm/numaperf.rst:

  "Some memory may share the same node as a CPU, and others are provided as
  memory only nodes."

Therefore, some node CPU masks may be empty and wouldn't have a "first CPU".

On a machine with far memory (and therefore CPU-less NUMA nodes):
- cpumask_of_node(nid) is 0
- cpumask_first(0) is CONFIG_NR_CPUS
- cpu_data(CONFIG_NR_CPUS) accesses the cpu_info per-CPU array at an
  index that is 1 out of bounds

This does not have any security implications since flashing microcode is
a privileged operation but I believe this has reliability implications by
potentially corrupting memory while flashing a microcode update.

When booting with CONFIG_UBSAN_BOUNDS=y on an AMD machine that flashes
a microcode update. I get the following splat:

  UBSAN: array-index-out-of-bounds in arch/x86/kernel/cpu/microcode/amd.c:X:Y
  index 512 is out of range for type 'unsigned long[512]'
  [...]
  Call Trace:
   dump_stack
   __ubsan_handle_out_of_bounds
   load_microcode_amd
   request_microcode_amd
   reload_store
   kernfs_fop_write_iter
   vfs_write
   ksys_write
   do_syscall_64
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe

Change the loop to go over only NUMA nodes which have CPUs before determining
whether the first CPU on the respective node needs microcode update.

  [ bp: Massage commit message, fix typo. ]

Statement: This vulnerability requires elevated privileges (e.g. `CAP_SYS_ADMIN`) to be triggered as the attacker needs to be able to initiate a microcode update. This action is highly privileged, as it involves writing directly to the CPU, and so cannot be done by a regular, unprivileged user.

Remediation:
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.
For details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

The system must be rebooted for this update to take effect.