Re: [PATCH 1/2] perf/x86/intel: Clear stale ACR mask before updating new mask

Re: [PATCH 1/2] perf/x86/intel: Clear stale ACR mask before updating new mask

[Mi, Dapeng]

On 4/13/2026 9:35 AM, sashiko-bot@kernel.org wrote:
> Sashiko AI review found 2 potential issue(s):
> - [High] Incomplete Fix: Early return bypasses the newly added stale mask cleanup for subsequent events.
> - [High] Missing bounds check on user-provided mask allows cross-event PMU interference (cross-wiring).
> --
>
> commit f516548e46c9feac44792cd958b5c0a840d60d43
> Author: Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>
>
> perf/x86/intel: Clear stale ACR mask before updating new mask
>
> This commit clears the ACR mask before applying a new one to prevent
> stale bits from persisting during event rescheduling. It ensures the
> hardware state does not get polluted by previous configurations.
>
>> diff --git a/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c b/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
>> index 4768236c054bb..58c236ce47474 100644
>> --- a/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
>> +++ b/arch/x86/events/intel/core.c
>> @@ -3344,6 +3344,9 @@ static void intel_pmu_acr_late_setup(struct cpu_hw_events *cpuc)
>>  			event = cpuc->event_list[j];
>>  			if (event->group_leader != leader->group_leader)
>>  				break;
>> +
>> +			/* Clear stale ACR mask first. */
>> +			event->hw.config1 = 0;
>>  			for_each_set_bit(idx, (unsigned long *)&event->attr.config2, X86_PMC_IDX_MAX) {
>>  				if (i + idx >= cpuc->n_events ||
>>  				    !is_acr_event_group(cpuc->event_list[i + idx]))
> Could this validation check allow unprivileged users to cross-wire the PMU?
>
> Since is_acr_event_group() only verifies that the target event belongs to any
> ACR group, rather than the same group_leader, does this allow a user-provided
> out-of-bounds bit in config2 to point to an independent, system-wide ACR event
> running on the same CPU?
>
> If so, it seems the hardware counter index of an unrelated privileged event
> could be blindly copied into the user's hw.config1.

It couldn't be. The above "if (event->group_leader !=
leader->group_leader)" has checked if the events are in a same ACR group.


>
>>  					return;
> Does this early return bypass the newly added stale mask cleanup for subsequent
> events?
>
> Because attr.config2 is user-controlled, a user could supply a malformed mask
> with an out-of-bounds bit to intentionally trigger this early return.
>
> Since it returns from intel_pmu_acr_late_setup() completely, wouldn't this skip
> the event->hw.config1 = 0 cleanup for all subsequent ACR events scheduled on the
> same CPU, leaving them with a polluted hardware state?

Yes, it's possible. It looks we have to do twice iteration for the
event_list.  The 1st iteration is to clear the stale hw.config1 and the 2nd
iteration is to validate and parse the ACR mask. Would fix it in next
version. Thanks.



>