CVE-2022-50635

powerpc/kprobes: Fix null pointer reference in arch_prepare_kprobe()

published December 9, 2025

CVSS
—
EPSS
0%
Percentile
9.8
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

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

powerpc/kprobes: Fix null pointer reference in arch_prepare_kprobe()

I found a null pointer reference in arch_prepare_kprobe():

# echo 'p cmdline_proc_show' > kprobe_events

# echo 'p cmdline_proc_show+16' >> kprobe_events

Kernel attempted to read user page (0) - exploit attempt? (uid: 0)

BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000000

Faulting instruction address: 0xc000000000050bfc

Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]

LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Radix SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA PowerNV

Modules linked in:

CPU: 0 PID: 122 Comm: sh Not tainted 6.0.0-rc3-00007-gdcf8e5633e2e #10

NIP: c000000000050bfc LR: c000000000050bec CTR: 0000000000005bdc

REGS: c0000000348475b0 TRAP: 0300 Not tainted (6.0.0-rc3-00007-gdcf8e5633e2e)

MSR: 9000000000009033 <SF,HV,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 88002444 XER: 20040006

CFAR: c00000000022d100 DAR: 0000000000000000 DSISR: 40000000 IRQMASK: 0

...

NIP arch_prepare_kprobe+0x10c/0x2d0

LR arch_prepare_kprobe+0xfc/0x2d0

Call Trace:

0xc0000000012f77a0 (unreliable)

register_kprobe+0x3c0/0x7a0

__register_trace_kprobe+0x140/0x1a0

__trace_kprobe_create+0x794/0x1040

trace_probe_create+0xc4/0xe0

create_or_delete_trace_kprobe+0x2c/0x80

trace_parse_run_command+0xf0/0x210

probes_write+0x20/0x40

vfs_write+0xfc/0x450

ksys_write+0x84/0x140

system_call_exception+0x17c/0x3a0

system_call_vectored_common+0xe8/0x278

--- interrupt: 3000 at 0x7fffa5682de0

NIP: 00007fffa5682de0 LR: 0000000000000000 CTR: 0000000000000000

REGS: c000000034847e80 TRAP: 3000 Not tainted (6.0.0-rc3-00007-gdcf8e5633e2e)

MSR: 900000000280f033 <SF,HV,VEC,VSX,EE,PR,FP,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 44002408 XER: 00000000

The address being probed has some special:

cmdline_proc_show: Probe based on ftrace

cmdline_proc_show+16: Probe for the next instruction at the ftrace location

The ftrace-based kprobe does not generate kprobe::ainsn::insn, it gets

set to NULL. In arch_prepare_kprobe() it will check for:

...

prev = get_kprobe(p->addr - 1);

preempt_enable_no_resched();

if (prev && ppc_inst_prefixed(ppc_inst_read(prev->ainsn.insn))) {

...

If prev is based on ftrace, 'ppc_inst_read(prev->ainsn.insn)' will occur

with a null pointer reference. At this point prev->addr will not be a

prefixed instruction, so the check can be skipped.

Check if prev is ftrace-based kprobe before reading 'prev->ainsn.insn'

to fix this problem.

[mpe: Trim oops]

The record
Technical detail
CVSS
Not scored
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00204 · 9.8th percentile
Published
2025-12-09T00:00Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 09 DEC 00:00Z
    powerpc/kprobes: Fix null pointer reference in arch_prepare_kprobe()
    cvelistv5