CVE-2013-0309 (published 2013-02-22T00:55Z)

arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h in the Linux kernel before 3.6.2, when transparent huge pages are used, does not properly support PROT_NONE memory regions, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via a crafted application.

Severity: MEDIUM
CVSS v2 base score: 4.7 (AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C)

Weakness information:
cwe_id: CWE-119
cwe_name: Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
description: The product performs operations on a memory buffer, but it reads from or writes to a memory location outside the buffer's intended boundary. This may result in read or write operations on unexpected memory locations that could be linked to other variables, data structures, or internal program data.
extended_description: 
            Certain languages allow direct addressing of memory locations and do not automatically ensure that these locations are valid for the memory buffer that is being referenced. This can cause read or write operations to be performed on memory locations that may be associated with other variables, data structures, or internal program data.
         
         

Fix information:
repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
commit_details: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
author: Andrea Arcangeli
author_date: 2012-10-08 16:33:27-07:00
msg: mm: thp: fix pmd_present for split_huge_page and PROT_NONE with THP

In many places !pmd_present has been converted to pmd_none.  For pmds
that's equivalent and pmd_none is quicker so using pmd_none is better.

However (unless we delete pmd_present) we should provide an accurate
pmd_present too.  This will avoid the risk of code thinking the pmd is non
present because it's under __split_huge_page_map, see the pmd_mknotpresent
there and the comment above it.

If the page has been mprotected as PROT_NONE, it would also lead to a
pmd_present false negative in the same way as the race with
split_huge_page.

Because the PSE bit stays on at all times (both during split_huge_page and
when the _PAGE_PROTNONE bit get set), we could only check for the PSE bit,
but checking the PROTNONE bit too is still good to remember pmd_present
must always keep PROT_NONE into account.

This explains a not reproducible BUG_ON that was seldom reported on the
lists.

The same issue is in pmd_large, it would go wrong with both PROT_NONE and
if it races with split_huge_page.

Signed-off-by: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com>
Cc: Johannes Weiner <jweiner@redhat.com>
Cc: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Cc: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
repository: repo_url: https://github.com/torvalds/linux
repo_name: torvalds/linux
description: Linux kernel source tree
repo_language: C
owner: torvalds
file_changes: filename: pgtable.h
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -146,8 +146,7 @@ static inline unsigned long pmd_pfn(pmd_t pmd)
 
 static inline int pmd_large(pmd_t pte)
 {
-	return (pmd_flags(pte) & (_PAGE_PSE | _PAGE_PRESENT)) ==
-		(_PAGE_PSE | _PAGE_PRESENT);
+	return pmd_flags(pte) & _PAGE_PSE;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE
@@ -415,7 +414,13 @@ static inline int pte_hidden(pte_t pte)
 
 static inline int pmd_present(pmd_t pmd)
 {
-	return pmd_flags(pmd) & _PAGE_PRESENT;
+	/*
+	 * Checking for _PAGE_PSE is needed too because
+	 * split_huge_page will temporarily clear the present bit (but
+	 * the _PAGE_PSE flag will remain set at all times while the
+	 * _PAGE_PRESENT bit is clear).
+	 */
+	return pmd_flags(pmd) & (_PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_PROTNONE | _PAGE_PSE);
 }
 
 static inline int pmd_none(pmd_t pmd)

programming_language: C