Medium · published June 18, 2025
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
arm64: fix oops in concurrently setting insn_emulation sysctls
emulation_proc_handler() changes table->data for proc_dointvec_minmax
and can generate the following Oops if called concurrently with itself:
| Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000010
| Internal error: Oops: 96000006 [#1] SMP
| Call trace:
| update_insn_emulation_mode+0xc0/0x148
| emulation_proc_handler+0x64/0xb8
| proc_sys_call_handler+0x9c/0xf8
| proc_sys_write+0x18/0x20
| __vfs_write+0x20/0x48
| vfs_write+0xe4/0x1d0
| ksys_write+0x70/0xf8
| __arm64_sys_write+0x20/0x28
| el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x7c/0x1c0
| el0_svc_handler+0x2c/0xa0
| el0_svc+0x8/0x200
To fix this issue, keep the table->data as &insn->current_mode and
use container_of() to retrieve the insn pointer. Another mutex is
used to protect against the current_mode update but not for retrieving
insn_emulation as table->data is no longer changing.
| Product | Versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| linux/linux_kernel | < 4.14.291 | 4.14.291 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 4.15, < 4.19.256 | 4.19.256 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 4.20, < 5.4.211 | 5.4.211 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.5, < 5.10.137 | 5.10.137 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.11, < 5.15.61 | 5.15.61 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.16, < 5.18.18 | 5.18.18 |
| linux/linux_kernel | ≥ 5.19, < 5.19.2 | 5.19.2 |