vulnerability
Debian: CVE-2024-42126: linux, linux-6.1 -- security update
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C) | Jul 30, 2024 | Aug 7, 2024 | Mar 30, 2026 |
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
powerpc: Avoid nmi_enter/nmi_exit in real mode interrupt.
nmi_enter()/nmi_exit() touches per cpu variables which can lead to kernel
crash when invoked during real mode interrupt handling (e.g. early HMI/MCE
interrupt handler) if percpu allocation comes from vmalloc area.
Early HMI/MCE handlers are called through DEFINE_INTERRUPT_HANDLER_NMI()
wrapper which invokes nmi_enter/nmi_exit calls. We don't see any issue when
percpu allocation is from the embedded first chunk. However with
CONFIG_NEED_PER_CPU_PAGE_FIRST_CHUNK enabled there are chances where percpu
allocation can come from the vmalloc area.
With kernel command line "percpu_alloc=page" we can force percpu allocation
to come from vmalloc area and can see kernel crash in machine_check_early:
[ 1.215714] NIP [c000000000e49eb4] rcu_nmi_enter+0x24/0x110
[ 1.215717] LR [c0000000000461a0] machine_check_early+0xf0/0x2c0
[ 1.215719] --- interrupt: 200
[ 1.215720] [c000000fffd73180] [0000000000000000] 0x0 (unreliable)
[ 1.215722] [c000000fffd731b0] [0000000000000000] 0x0
[ 1.215724] [c000000fffd73210] [c000000000008364] machine_check_early_common+0x134/0x1f8
Fix this by avoiding use of nmi_enter()/nmi_exit() in real mode if percpu
first chunk is not embedded.
Solutions
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