From: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
To: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>,
Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>,
Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Cc: linux-efi@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, riel@surriel.com,
puranjay@kernel.org, usamaarif642@gmail.com,
Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>,
kernel-team@meta.com
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] arm64: efi: Fix NULL pointer dereference by initializing user_ns
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2025 02:55:43 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251223-efi_fix_619-v1-1-e0146b8b9d73@debian.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20251223-efi_fix_619-v1-0-e0146b8b9d73@debian.org>
Linux 6.19-rc2 (9448598b22c5 ("Linux 6.19-rc2")) is crashing with a NULL
pointer dereference on arm64 hosts:
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000000000c8
pc : cap_capable (security/commoncap.c:82 security/commoncap.c:128)
Call trace:
cap_capable (security/commoncap.c:82 security/commoncap.c:128) (P)
security_capable (security/security.c:?)
ns_capable_noaudit (kernel/capability.c:342 kernel/capability.c:381)
__ptrace_may_access (./include/linux/rcupdate.h:895 kernel/ptrace.c:326)
ptrace_may_access (kernel/ptrace.c:353)
do_task_stat (fs/proc/array.c:467)
proc_tgid_stat (fs/proc/array.c:673)
proc_single_show (fs/proc/base.c:803)
I've bissected the problem to commit a5baf582f4c0 ("arm64/efi: Call EFI
runtime services without disabling preemption").
From my analyzes, the crash occurs because efi_mm lacks a user_ns field
initialization. This was previously harmless, but commit a5baf582f4c0
("arm64/efi: Call EFI runtime services without disabling preemption")
changed the EFI runtime call path to use kthread_use_mm(&efi_mm), which
temporarily adopts efi_mm as the current mm for the calling kthread.
When a thread has an active mm, LSM hooks like cap_capable() expect
mm->user_ns to be valid for credential checks. With efi_mm.user_ns being
NULL, capability checks during possible /proc access dereference the
NULL pointer and crash.
Fix by initializing efi_mm.user_ns to &init_user_ns.
Fixes: a5baf582f4c0 ("arm64/efi: Call EFI runtime services without disabling preemption")
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
---
drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c b/drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c
index a9070d00b833..55452e61af31 100644
--- a/drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c
+++ b/drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ struct mm_struct efi_mm = {
MMAP_LOCK_INITIALIZER(efi_mm)
.page_table_lock = __SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED(efi_mm.page_table_lock),
.mmlist = LIST_HEAD_INIT(efi_mm.mmlist),
+ .user_ns = &init_user_ns,
.cpu_bitmap = { [BITS_TO_LONGS(NR_CPUS)] = 0},
#ifdef CONFIG_SCHED_MM_CID
.mm_cid.lock = __RAW_SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED(efi_mm.mm_cid.lock),
--
2.47.3
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2025-12-23 10:56 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-23 10:55 [PATCH 0/2] arm64: efi: Fix NULL pointer crash in 6.19-rc2 Breno Leitao
2025-12-23 10:55 ` Breno Leitao [this message]
2025-12-23 19:24 ` [PATCH 1/2] arm64: efi: Fix NULL pointer dereference by initializing user_ns Rik van Riel
2025-12-23 10:55 ` [PATCH 2/2] kthread: Warn if mm_struct lacks user_ns in kthread_use_mm() Breno Leitao
2025-12-23 19:31 ` Rik van Riel
2025-12-26 10:10 ` [PATCH 0/2] arm64: efi: Fix NULL pointer crash in 6.19-rc2 Ard Biesheuvel
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20251223-efi_fix_619-v1-1-e0146b8b9d73@debian.org \
--to=leitao@debian.org \
--cc=ardb@kernel.org \
--cc=catalin.marinas@arm.com \
--cc=kernel-team@meta.com \
--cc=linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org \
--cc=linux-efi@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=puranjay@kernel.org \
--cc=riel@surriel.com \
--cc=usamaarif642@gmail.com \
--cc=will@kernel.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox