From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: mm-commits@vger.kernel.org,thomas.weissschuh@linutronix.de,stable@vger.kernel.org,sashiko-bot@kernel.org,ryan.roberts@arm.com,mark.rutland@arm.com,leitao@debian.org,ekffu200098@gmail.com,dianders@chromium.org,chenhuacai@kernel.org,brauner@kernel.org,mhiramat@kernel.org,akpm@linux-foundation.org
Subject: + bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-in-initrd-size-check.patch added to mm-nonmm-unstable branch
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2026 14:27:44 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260910212744.DA5981F000FF@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
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The patch titled
Subject: bootconfig: fix integer overflow in initrd size check
has been added to the -mm mm-nonmm-unstable branch. Its filename is
bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-in-initrd-size-check.patch
This patch will shortly appear at
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-in-initrd-size-check.patch
This patch will later appear in the mm-nonmm-unstable branch at
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
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The -mm tree is included into linux-next via various
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and is updated there most days
------------------------------------------------------
From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Subject: bootconfig: fix integer overflow in initrd size check
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 00:15:34 +0900
Sashiko reported that in get_boot_config_from_initrd(), a crafted initrd
with a huge bootconfig size (such as 0xFFFFFFFF) can cause the pointer
arithmetic:
data = ((void *)hdr) - size;
to wrap around on 32-bit systems (or when pointer subtraction overflows).
Because data wraps around, the subsequent bounds check:
if ((unsigned long)data < initrd_start)
evaluates to false, bypassing the check. The kernel then calls
xbc_calc_checksum(data, size), which attempts to read 4GB of memory,
hitting unmapped pages and triggering a fatal kernel page fault during
early boot. Furthermore, on 64-bit systems with an initrd > 4.29 GB, an
unbounded 32-bit size can similarly bypass the initrd_start check.
Fix this by:
1. Ensuring the initrd is at least large enough to contain the bootconfig
footer and verifying hdr is within the initrd bounds.
2. Checking that size does not exceed XBC_DATA_MAX and does not exceed
the available space between initrd_start and hdr before performing
pointer subtraction.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/178905333479.213925.1358412668943562406.stgit@devnote2
Fixes: de462e5f1071 ("bootconfig: Fix to remove bootconfig data from initrd while boot")
Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Reported-by: Sashiko <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260910010137.EE0431F000FF@smtp.kernel.org/
Assisted-by: Antigravity:gemini-3.8-flash
Cc: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Cc: Doug Anderson <dianders@chromium.org>
Cc: Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@kernel.org>
Cc: Marc Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Cc: Sang-Heon Jeon <ekffu200098@gmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Weißschuh <thomas.weissschuh@linutronix.de>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---
init/main.c | 25 +++++++++++++++----------
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
--- a/init/main.c~bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-in-initrd-size-check
+++ a/init/main.c
@@ -277,7 +277,8 @@ static void * __init get_boot_config_fro
u8 *hdr;
int i;
- if (!initrd_end)
+ if (!initrd_end || initrd_end < initrd_start ||
+ initrd_end - initrd_start < BOOTCONFIG_MAGIC_LEN + 8)
return NULL;
data = (char *)initrd_end - BOOTCONFIG_MAGIC_LEN;
@@ -294,16 +295,26 @@ static void * __init get_boot_config_fro
found:
hdr = (u8 *)(data - 8);
+ if ((unsigned long)hdr < initrd_start)
+ return NULL;
+
size = get_unaligned_le32(hdr);
csum = get_unaligned_le32(hdr + 4);
- data = ((void *)hdr) - size;
- if ((unsigned long)data < initrd_start) {
- pr_err("bootconfig size %d is greater than initrd size %ld\n",
+ if (size > XBC_DATA_MAX) {
+ pr_err("bootconfig size %u is greater than max size %d\n",
+ size, XBC_DATA_MAX);
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+ if (size > ((unsigned long)hdr - initrd_start)) {
+ pr_err("bootconfig size %u is greater than initrd size %lu\n",
size, initrd_end - initrd_start);
return NULL;
}
+ data = ((void *)hdr) - size;
+
if (xbc_calc_checksum(data, size) != csum) {
pr_err("bootconfig checksum failed\n");
return NULL;
@@ -394,12 +405,6 @@ static void __init setup_boot_config(voi
return;
}
- if (size >= XBC_DATA_MAX) {
- pr_err("bootconfig size %ld greater than max size %d\n",
- (long)size, XBC_DATA_MAX);
- return;
- }
-
ret = xbc_init(data, size, &msg, &pos);
if (ret < 0) {
if (pos < 0)
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from mhiramat@kernel.org are
bootconfig-reject-unexpected-data-after-null-character.patch
tools-bootconfig-consolidate-xbc_init-to-error-message-wrapper.patch
bootconfig-skip-internal-tree-sanity-checks-in-kernel.patch
tools-bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-and-truncation-in-size-checks.patch
bootconfig-fix-integer-overflow-in-initrd-size-check.patch
reply other threads:[~2026-09-10 21:27 UTC|newest]
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