High · published August 22, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fbdev: bitblit: bound-check glyph index in bit_cursor()
bit_cursor() fetches the glyph under the cursor with
c = scr_readw(vc_pos);
src = vc_font.data + ((c & charmask) * w * height);
where charmask is 0x1ff when vc_hi_font_mask is set. The screen buffer
value comes directly from scr_readw() and may be larger than the current
font's glyph count.
Syzkaller triggers this via vcs_write(). The Call Trace shows
vcs_write() in vc_screen.c writing an arbitrary 16-bit value with
writev() to /dev/vcsa, which vcs_write_buf() in vc_screen.c stores via
vcs_scr_writew() without checking charcount. The stored value is later
read in bit_cursor() in bitblit.c.
When the font is changed from a font with 512 glyphs to a font with
256 glyphs, the screen buffer can retain characters with the high
bit set from the previous mode, which could also produce the same
out-of-bounds access.
BUG: KASAN: global-out-of-bounds in soft_cursor+0x378/0x6bc drivers/video/fbdev/core/softcursor.c:70
Read of size 16 at addr ffff800086c57970
Call Trace:
soft_cursor+0x378/0x6bc drivers/video/fbdev/core/softcursor.c:70
bit_cursor+0xa90/0x1108 drivers/video/fbdev/core/bitblit.c:365
fbcon_cursor+0x344/0x498 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:1427
hide_cursor+0xdc/0x2d0 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:883
update_region+0x100/0x18c drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:669
vcs_write+0x8ec/0xaf0 drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:685
bit_putcs_aligned() and bit_putcs_unaligned() already clamp the glyph
index to vc_font.charcount. Apply the same clamp in bit_cursor() after
extracting the attribute and masking, before indexing fontdata.
The fix completes the bounds checking started in commit 18c4ef4e765a
("fbdev: bitblit: bound-check glyph index in bit_putcs*"), which missed
the cursor path.
This change should be safe because the clamp reuses the existing
contract from fbcon: charcount is maintained under console_lock in
con_font_set() and fbcon_font_set(), and hi_font_mask is cleared when
switching from 512 to 256 glyphs. When stale screen data with high bits
remains after a font switch, or when vcs_write() stores an arbitrary
value, clamping the index to 0 prevents the out-of-bounds read without
changing cursor semantics — the same fallback bit_putcs uses.