High · published September 16, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
LoongArch: Do not save/restore percpu base register in rethook trampoline
The rethook trampoline saves $r21 ($u0), the percpu base, into its frame
at entry and restores it at exit. Inbetween rethook_trampoline_handler()
may schedule via preempt_enable_notrace().
If the task migrates to another CPU, the frame's $r21 holds the old
CPU's percpu base, and restoring it poisons $r21 on the new CPU. Until
the next user->kernel transition heals $r21, all this_cpu_*() accesses
(runqueues, RCU per-CPU data, timer tick programming, FPU ownership)
hit the wrong CPU's percpu area.
Under kretprobe-heavy preemptible load this can corrupt scheduler and
timer state: scheduling-while-atomic splats, wrong-CPU RCU warnings,
WARN_ON_ONCE(rq != this_rq()) in nohz_balance_exit_idle(), and CPUs
parking in the idle loop with the constant timer never re-armed (hard
lockup). Reproduces on a Loongson-3A6000 with kretprobes on VFS paths
plus heavy file churn (OS install / unsquashfs).
By convention $r21 always holds the current CPU's percpu base in kernel
mode: SAVE_SOME() at exception entry reloads it only when coming from
user mode, and RESTORE_SOME() restores it only when returning to user
mode; the context-switch path never writes it. Therefore the live $r21
at trampoline exit is already correct, and nothing inbetween can change
it legitimately (kernel C code cannot write a global register variable).
The same flaw existed even in the pre-rethook kretprobe trampoline since
v6.3; it was carried over when rethook replaced it. Drop both the save
and the restore here. Drop the restore is enough to solve the issue, and
drop the save is to keep the code tidy and no need to clear it.