Re: [PATCH 7/14] i386 / Add some descriptor convenience functions

From: Zachary Amsden
Date: Tue Aug 16 2005 - 13:07:23 EST


Chuck Ebbert wrote:

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 at 21:56:20 -0700, zach@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:



Patch-base: 2.6.13-rc5-mm1
Patch-keys: i386 desc cleanup
Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@xxxxxxxxxx>
Index: linux-2.6.13/include/asm-i386/desc.h
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.13.orig/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-08-09 19:43:38.000000000 -0700
+++ linux-2.6.13/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-08-10 20:42:03.000000000 -0700
@@ -14,6 +14,28 @@

#include <asm/mmu.h>

+#define desc_empty(desc) \
+ (!((desc)->a + (desc)->b))
+



I think that should be "|" instead of "+".



I think so too. I merely moved the code here and didn't notice it in all this excitement.

0x00cf9a000xff306600 =>

Present CPL-0 32-bit code segment, base 0x0000ff30, limit 0xf6601 pages, for which desc_empty(desc) is true.

Thankfully, this is not used as a security check, but it can falsely overwrite TLS segments with carefully chosen base / limits. I do not believe this is an issue in practice, but it is a kernel bug.

Nice catch. Looks like it affects all 2.6.X kernels.

Zach Chuck Ebbert noticed that the desc_empty macro is incorrect. Fix it.

Signed-off-by: Zachary Amsden <zach@xxxxxxxxxx>
Index: linux-2.6.13/include/asm-i386/desc.h
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.13.orig/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-08-15 11:23:32.000000000 -0700
+++ linux-2.6.13/include/asm-i386/desc.h 2005-08-16 10:49:03.000000000 -0700
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
#include <asm/mmu.h>

#define desc_empty(desc) \
- (!((desc)->a + (desc)->b))
+ (!((desc)->a | (desc)->b))

#define desc_equal(desc1, desc2) \
(((desc1)->a == (desc2)->a) && ((desc1)->b == (desc2)->b))