In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ACPI: PAD: fix crash in exitroundrobin()
The kernel occasionally crashes in cpumaskclearcpu(), which is called within exitroundrobin(), because when executing clear_bit(nr, addr) with nr set to 0xffffffff, the address calculation may cause misalignment within the memory, leading to access to an invalid memory address.
BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at ffffffffe0740618 ... CPU: 3 PID: 2919323 Comm: acpipad/14 Kdump: loaded Tainted: G OE X --------- - - 4.18.0-425.19.2.el87.x8664 #1 ... RIP: 0010:powersavingthread+0x313/0x411 [acpipad] Code: 89 cd 48 89 d3 eb d1 48 c7 c7 55 70 72 c0 e8 64 86 b0 e4 c6 05 0d a1 02 00 01 e9 bc fd ff ff 45 89 e4 42 8b 04 a5 20 82 72 c0 <f0> 48 0f b3 05 f4 9c 01 00 42 c7 04 a5 20 82 72 c0 ff ff ff ff 31 RSP: 0018:ff72a5d51fa77ec8 EFLAGS: 00010202 RAX: 00000000ffffffff RBX: ff462981e5d8cb80 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000246 RDI: 0000000000000246 RBP: ff46297556959d80 R08: 0000000000000382 R09: ff46297c8d0f38d8 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: 000000000000000e R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffffffffffffffff R15: 000000000000000e FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ff46297a800c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: ffffffffe0740618 CR3: 0000007e20410004 CR4: 0000000000771ee0 DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: ? acpipadadd+0x120/0x120 [acpipad] kthread+0x10b/0x130 ? setkthreadstruct+0x50/0x50 retfrom_fork+0x1f/0x40 ... CR2: ffffffffe0740618
crash> dis -lr ffffffffc0726923 ... /usr/src/debug/kernel-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87/linux-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87.x8664/./include/linux/cpumask.h: 114 0xffffffffc0726918 <power_saving_thread+776>: mov %r12d,%r12d /usr/src/debug/kernel-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87/linux-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87.x8664/./include/linux/cpumask.h: 325 0xffffffffc072691b <power_saving_thread+779>: mov -0x3f8d7de0(,%r12,4),%eax /usr/src/debug/kernel-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87/linux-4.18.0-425.19.2.el87.x86_64/./arch/x86/include/asm/bitops.h: 80 0xffffffffc0726923 <power_saving_thread+787>: lock btr %rax,0x19cf4(%rip) # 0xffffffffc0740620 <pad_busy_cpus_bits>
crash> px tskincpu[14] $66 = 0xffffffff
crash> px 0xffffffffc072692c+0x19cf4 $99 = 0xffffffffc0740620
crash> sym 0xffffffffc0740620 ffffffffc0740620 (b) padbusycpusbits [acpipad]
crash> px padbusycpus_bits[0]
To fix this, ensure that tskincpu[tskindex] != -1 before calling cpumaskclearcpu() in exitroundrobin(), just as it is done in roundrobin_cpu().
[ rjw: Subject edit, avoid updates to the same value ]