From: Michael Ellerman <mpe@kernel.org>
To: Mark Harris <mark.hsj@gmail.com>
Cc: Paul Walmsley <paul.walmsley@sifive.com>,
Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com>,
Albert Ou <aou@eecs.berkeley.edu>,
Alexandre Ghiti <alex@ghiti.fr>,
linux-riscv@lists.infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] riscv: hwprobe: Avoid uninitialized read in hwprobe_get_cpus()
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:24:45 +1000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <dda194a3-aa0f-4284-882d-7bfd0317edb1@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAMdZqKEpxT3vzE97LbaxP9grg5wi3aeArzgdyORHyGz=ZsDe0g@mail.gmail.com>
On 16/6/26 1:53 pm, Mark Harris wrote:
> Michael Ellerman wrote:
>>
>> On 12/6/26 2:55 pm, Mark Harris wrote:
>>> When cpusetsize < cpumask_size(), hwprobe_get_cpus() did not fully
>>> initialize its copy of the cpu mask, which could cause non-deterministic
>>> results from the riscv_hwprobe syscall on a system with more than 8 CPUs
>>> when the supplied cpu mask is empty. Address this by fully initializing
>>> the cpu mask.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Mark Harris <mark.hsj@gmail.com>
>>> ---
>>> arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c | 1 +
>>> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>
>> This should have a fixes tag, I think it's:
>>
>> Fixes: e178bf146e4b ("RISC-V: hwprobe: Introduce which-cpus flag")
>
> Yes, that looks correct.
>
>>
>>> diff --git a/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c b/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> index 1659d31fd288..caf6762427c8 100644
>>> --- a/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> +++ b/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> @@ -450,6 +450,7 @@ static int hwprobe_get_cpus(struct riscv_hwprobe __user *pairs,
>>> if (cpusetsize > cpumask_size())
>>> cpusetsize = cpumask_size();
>>>
>>> + cpumask_clear(&cpus);
>>> ret = copy_from_user(&cpus, cpus_user, cpusetsize);
>>> if (ret)
>>> return -EFAULT;
>>
>> cpus is on the stack, and is copied back out at the end of the function,
>> so this looks like it could be a stack info leak.
>>
>> But the copy back is also bounded by cpusetsize, so in fact there is not
>> any leak of uninitialised stack out to userspace:
>>
>> ret = copy_to_user(cpus_user, &cpus, cpusetsize);
>> if (ret)
>> return -EFAULT;
>
> It can leak 1 bit of information from the kernel stack. For example
> with 16 CPUs, all online, if a 1-byte 0x00 mask is supplied, the
> caller can determine whether the second (uninitialized) mask byte is
> zero or non-zero due to the cpumask_empty(&cpus) check.
Oh yep, because the caller can observe if cpus was/wasn't overwritten
with the cpus_online_mask.
I guess that counts as an info leak, it doesn't let an attacker
reconstruct actual values from the stack, but a zero/non-zero check
could be useful in theory.
cheers
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WARNING: multiple messages have this Message-ID (diff)
From: Michael Ellerman <mpe@kernel.org>
To: Mark Harris <mark.hsj@gmail.com>
Cc: Paul Walmsley <paul.walmsley@sifive.com>,
Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@dabbelt.com>,
Albert Ou <aou@eecs.berkeley.edu>,
Alexandre Ghiti <alex@ghiti.fr>,
linux-riscv@lists.infradead.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] riscv: hwprobe: Avoid uninitialized read in hwprobe_get_cpus()
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:24:45 +1000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <dda194a3-aa0f-4284-882d-7bfd0317edb1@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAMdZqKEpxT3vzE97LbaxP9grg5wi3aeArzgdyORHyGz=ZsDe0g@mail.gmail.com>
On 16/6/26 1:53 pm, Mark Harris wrote:
> Michael Ellerman wrote:
>>
>> On 12/6/26 2:55 pm, Mark Harris wrote:
>>> When cpusetsize < cpumask_size(), hwprobe_get_cpus() did not fully
>>> initialize its copy of the cpu mask, which could cause non-deterministic
>>> results from the riscv_hwprobe syscall on a system with more than 8 CPUs
>>> when the supplied cpu mask is empty. Address this by fully initializing
>>> the cpu mask.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Mark Harris <mark.hsj@gmail.com>
>>> ---
>>> arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c | 1 +
>>> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>
>> This should have a fixes tag, I think it's:
>>
>> Fixes: e178bf146e4b ("RISC-V: hwprobe: Introduce which-cpus flag")
>
> Yes, that looks correct.
>
>>
>>> diff --git a/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c b/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> index 1659d31fd288..caf6762427c8 100644
>>> --- a/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> +++ b/arch/riscv/kernel/sys_hwprobe.c
>>> @@ -450,6 +450,7 @@ static int hwprobe_get_cpus(struct riscv_hwprobe __user *pairs,
>>> if (cpusetsize > cpumask_size())
>>> cpusetsize = cpumask_size();
>>>
>>> + cpumask_clear(&cpus);
>>> ret = copy_from_user(&cpus, cpus_user, cpusetsize);
>>> if (ret)
>>> return -EFAULT;
>>
>> cpus is on the stack, and is copied back out at the end of the function,
>> so this looks like it could be a stack info leak.
>>
>> But the copy back is also bounded by cpusetsize, so in fact there is not
>> any leak of uninitialised stack out to userspace:
>>
>> ret = copy_to_user(cpus_user, &cpus, cpusetsize);
>> if (ret)
>> return -EFAULT;
>
> It can leak 1 bit of information from the kernel stack. For example
> with 16 CPUs, all online, if a 1-byte 0x00 mask is supplied, the
> caller can determine whether the second (uninitialized) mask byte is
> zero or non-zero due to the cpumask_empty(&cpus) check.
Oh yep, because the caller can observe if cpus was/wasn't overwritten
with the cpus_online_mask.
I guess that counts as an info leak, it doesn't let an attacker
reconstruct actual values from the stack, but a zero/non-zero check
could be useful in theory.
cheers
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-06-17 6:25 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-12 4:55 [PATCH] riscv: hwprobe: Avoid uninitialized read in hwprobe_get_cpus() Mark Harris
2026-06-12 4:55 ` Mark Harris
2026-06-12 21:50 ` Nam Cao
2026-06-12 21:50 ` Nam Cao
2026-06-16 3:05 ` Michael Ellerman
2026-06-16 3:05 ` Michael Ellerman
2026-06-16 3:53 ` Mark Harris
2026-06-16 3:53 ` Mark Harris
2026-06-17 6:24 ` Michael Ellerman [this message]
2026-06-17 6:24 ` Michael Ellerman
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