Overview
About vulnerability
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ring-buffer: Fix event length with forced 8-byte alignment
When RB_FORCE_8BYTE_ALIGNMENT is true, rb_calculate_event_length() reserves the space of event->array[0] for placing the data length and rb_update_event() stores the data length in event->array[0] accordingly. As a result the whole event length will add extra 4 bytes for sizeof(event.array[0]) unconditionally.
But ring_buffer_event_length() only subtracts the sizeof(event->array[0]) for events larger than RB_MAX_SMALL_DATA + sizeof(event->array[0]). As a result, small events on architectures with RB_FORCE_8BYTE_ALIGNMENT=true report a data length that is 4 bytes larger than expected.
To fix it, add the RB_FORCE_8BYTE_ALIGNMENT as a condition to subtract the size of that length field whenever RB_FORCE_8BYTE_ALIGNMENT is true.
This issue is observed in a riscv64 kernel with CONFIG_HAVE_64BIT_ALIGNED_ACCESS set to y, when we run ftrace selftest trace_marker_raw.tc, we get the weird log: for cases where the id is 1..100, the number of data field is 8N, but once id exceeds 100, the number of data field becomes 8N+4:
1 buf: 58 00 00 00 80 5e d1 63 (number of data field is 8*1)
…
a buf: 58 … (number of data field is 8*2)
…
64 buf: 58 … (number of data field is 8*13)
65 buf: 58 … (number of data field is 8*13+4)
After applying this change, the number of data field keeps being 8*N+4 consistently.
Details
- Affected product:
- AlmaLinux 9.2 ESU , Amazon Linux 2 ELS , CentOS 7 ELS , CentOS 8.4 ELS , CentOS 8.5 ELS , CentOS Stream 8 ELS , CloudLinux 7 ELS , Debian 10 ELS , Debian 11 ELS , Oracle Linux 7 ELS , RHEL 7 ELS , TuxCare 9.6 ESU , TuxCare 9.8 ESU , Ubuntu 16.04 ELS , Ubuntu 18.04 ELS , Ubuntu 20.04 ELS
- Affected packages:
- linux @ 5.10.259 (+17 more)
Fixes
KernelCare state
Live-patch status from KernelCare for each operating system.
| Operating system | Status | Covered kernels |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | Planned | — |
| Debian 13 | Will Not Fix |
13 kernels
|
| Proxmox VE 7 5.15 | Will Not Fix |
47 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 20.04 HWE AWS | Will Not Fix |
57 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 22.04 | Will Not Fix |
102 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 22.04 AWS | Will Not Fix |
93 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 22.04 Azure | Will Not Fix |
83 kernels
|
| Ubuntu 24.04 | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 AWS | Planned | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 | Will Not Fix | — |