Improper Control of Document Type Definition Affecting kernel-core package, versions *


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating

    Threat Intelligence

    EPSS
    0.04% (12th percentile)

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  • Snyk ID SNYK-RHEL9-KERNELCORE-7585233
  • published 5 Aug 2024
  • disclosed 30 Jul 2024

How to fix?

There is no fixed version for RHEL:9 kernel-core.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream kernel-core package and not the kernel-core package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

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

powerpc: Avoid nmi_enter/nmi_exit in real mode interrupt.

nmi_enter()/nmi_exit() touches per cpu variables which can lead to kernel crash when invoked during real mode interrupt handling (e.g. early HMI/MCE interrupt handler) if percpu allocation comes from vmalloc area.

Early HMI/MCE handlers are called through DEFINE_INTERRUPT_HANDLER_NMI() wrapper which invokes nmi_enter/nmi_exit calls. We don't see any issue when percpu allocation is from the embedded first chunk. However with CONFIG_NEED_PER_CPU_PAGE_FIRST_CHUNK enabled there are chances where percpu allocation can come from the vmalloc area.

With kernel command line "percpu_alloc=page" we can force percpu allocation to come from vmalloc area and can see kernel crash in machine_check_early:

[ 1.215714] NIP [c000000000e49eb4] rcu_nmi_enter+0x24/0x110 [ 1.215717] LR [c0000000000461a0] machine_check_early+0xf0/0x2c0 [ 1.215719] --- interrupt: 200 [ 1.215720] [c000000fffd73180] [0000000000000000] 0x0 (unreliable) [ 1.215722] [c000000fffd731b0] [0000000000000000] 0x0 [ 1.215724] [c000000fffd73210] [c000000000008364] machine_check_early_common+0x134/0x1f8

Fix this by avoiding use of nmi_enter()/nmi_exit() in real mode if percpu first chunk is not embedded.

CVSS Scores

version 3.1
Expand this section

Red Hat

4.4 medium
  • Attack Vector (AV)
    Local
  • Attack Complexity (AC)
    Low
  • Privileges Required (PR)
    High
  • User Interaction (UI)
    None
  • Scope (S)
    Unchanged
  • Confidentiality (C)
    None
  • Integrity (I)
    None
  • Availability (A)
    High
Expand this section

SUSE

5.5 medium