In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/hugetlb_cma: fix null nodemask dereference in hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio
alloc_buddy_hugetlb_folio_with_mpol() can pass a NULL nodemask to
alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() as a fallback to allocate from all nodes. If
order is gigantic, alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio() propagates the NULL
nodemask down to hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() via
alloc_gigantic_frozen_folio().
Additionally, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() previously attempted
allocation on hugetlb_cma[nid] without verifying if nid is included in the
caller's nodemask. Adding a node_isset(nid, *nodemask) check ensures the
initial preferred node allocation honors the memory policy / nodemask.
However, hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() dereferences the nodemask in
node_isset(nid, nodemask) and for_each_node_mask(node, nodemask),
leading to a null pointer dereference kernel panic when nodemask is NULL.
Fix this by checking if nodemask is NULL in
hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio() and defaulting it to
cpuset_current_mems_allowed. Enclose the allocation attempts within the
cpuset seqcount retry loop so that if the cpuset changes concurrently
during allocation, the attempts are retried using the updated nodemask.
This ensures that the initial node check and fallback loop safely honor
the task's cpuset without violating cpuset constraints or causing NULL
pointer dereferences or unexpected allocation failures.
From a userspace perspective, this bug allows an unprivileged user to
crash the kernel (trigger a panic) by requesting a gigantic hugepage
allocation with MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY on a system where CMA is only
configured on a subset of NUMA nodes.
This can be reproduced by booting a VM with two NUMA nodes, restricting
CMA to Node 1 (e.g., hugetlb_cma=1:1G default_hugepagesz=1G hugepagesz=1G
hugepages=0), and running a program that allocates a 1GB hugepage area
without reserving, restricts allocation to Node 0 using mbind() with
MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, and triggers a page fault:
void ptr = mmap(NULL, 1UL << 30, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_HUGETLB |
MAP_HUGE_1GB | MAP_NORESERVE, -1, 0);
unsigned long nodemask = 1; / Node 0 /
mbind(ptr, 1UL << 30, MPOL_PREFERRED_MANY, &nodemask,
sizeof(nodemask) * 8, 0);
memset(ptr, 0, 1UL << 30); / Trigger fault */
This results in a NULL pointer dereference:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
#PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
RIP: 0010:hugetlb_cma_alloc_frozen_folio+0x75/0x120
Call Trace:
<TASK>
only_alloc_fresh_hugetlb_folio.isra.0+0x2c/0x160
alloc_surplus_hugetlb_folio+0x6d/0x100
alloc_hugetlb_folio+0x3c5/0x660
hugetlb_no_page+0x3d9/0x650