Re: [PATCH] proc: fix null pointer deref in proc_pid_permission()

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Wed Jan 11 2012 - 16:58:48 EST


On Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:43:30 -0800
Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 01:47:05PM -0500, Xiaotian Feng wrote:
> > get_proc_task() can fail to search the task and return NULL, put_task_struct()
> > will then bomb the kernel with following oops:
> >
> > [ 1870.574045] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000010
> > [ 1870.574065] IP: [<ffffffff81217d34>] proc_pid_permission+0x64/0xe0
> > [ 1870.574088] PGD 112075067 PUD 112814067 PMD 0
> > [ 1870.574106] Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP
> >
> > This is a regression introduced by commit 0499680a, kernel should
> > return -ESRCH if get_proc_task() failed.
>
> Nice catch!
>
> However since this error is returned to userspace, shouldn't this be
> -ENOENT instead?
>

Failed get_proc_task() frequently results in -ESRCH. And less
frequently results in -ENOENT.

It seems odd that inode_operations.permission() would ever return
anything other than zero or -EPERM.

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/