CVE-2022-49090

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

arch/arm64: Fix topology initialization for core scheduling

Arm64 systems rely on store_cpu_topology() to call update_siblings_masks() to transfer the toplogy to the various cpu masks. This needs to be done before the call to notify_cpu_starting() which tells the scheduler about each cpu found, otherwise the core scheduling data structures are setup in a way that does not match the actual topology.

With smt_mask not setup correctly we bail on cpumask_weight(smt_mask) == 1 for !leaders in:

notify_cpu_starting() cpuhp_invoke_callback_range() sched_cpu_starting() sched_core_cpu_starting()

which leads to rq->core not being correctly set for !leader-rqs.

Without this change stress-ng (which enables core scheduling in its prctl tests in newer versions – i.e. with PR_SCHED_CORE support) causes a warning and then a crash (trimmed for legibility):

[ 1853.805168] ————[ cut here ]———— [ 1853.809784] task_rq(b)->core != rq->core [ 1853.809792] WARNING: CPU: 117 PID: 0 at kernel/sched/fair.c:11102 cfs_prio_less+0x1b4/0x1c4 … [ 1854.015210] Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000010 … [ 1854.231256] Call trace: [ 1854.233689] pick_next_task+0x3dc/0x81c [ 1854.237512] __schedule+0x10c/0x4cc [ 1854.240988] schedule_idle+0x34/0x54

Weakness

The product dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid but is NULL.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5524cbb1bfcdff0cad0aaa9f94e6092002a07259
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/790c1567582bda8f1153015436e3330a7c6eb278
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/87f5d66daa5f457449bb95d6b8d18bb7596aa627
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c78a1b2d0bff678570c8dc9f14035606f5e5257d