Re: [PATCH] fs/proc/kcore.c: use probe_kernel_read() instead of memcpy()

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Wed Dec 06 2017 - 19:43:55 EST


On Sat, 2 Dec 2017 14:27:39 +0100 Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> git commit df04abfd181a ("fs/proc/kcore.c: Add bounce buffer for ktext
> data") added a bounce buffer to avoid hardened usercopy
> checks. Copying to the bounce buffer was implemented with a simple
> memcpy() assuming that it is always valid to read from kernel memory
> iff the kern_addr_valid() check passed.
>
> A simple, but pointless, test case like "dd if=/proc/kcore
> of=/dev/null" now can easily crash the kernel, since the former
> execption handling on invalid kernel addresses now doesn't work
> anymore.
>
> Also adding a kern_addr_valid() implementation wouldn't help
> here. Most architectures simply return 1 here, while a couple
> implemented a page table walk to figure out if something is mapped at
> the address in question.
> With DEBUG_PAGEALLOC active mappings are established and removed all
> the time, so that relying on the result of kern_addr_valid() before
> executing the memcpy() also doesn't work.
>
> Therefore simply use probe_kernel_read() to copy to the bounce
> buffer. This also allows to simplify read_kcore().
>
> At least on s390 this fixes the observed crashes and doesn't introduce
> warnings that were removed with df04abfd181a ("fs/proc/kcore.c: Add
> bounce buffer for ktext data"), even though the generic
> probe_kernel_read() implementation uses uaccess functions.
>
> While looking into this I'm also wondering if kern_addr_valid() could
> be completely removed...(?)
>
> Fixes: df04abfd181a ("fs/proc/kcore.c: Add bounce buffer for ktext data")
> Fixes: f5509cc18daa ("mm: Hardened usercopy")

It's a privileged operation, but oopsing root's kernel is still a bit
rude. So I'll add cc:stable. And let it bake until 4.16-rc1, since
the bug has been there for a year or more. Sound OK?