In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bpf: Reject load-acquire from pointers requiring fault protection
A BPF_LOAD_ACQ is not rewritten to a BPF_PROBE_MEM load by the verifier,
unlike a regular BPF_LDX, so the JIT emits a plain load with no exception
table entry and a fault panics the kernel instead of being handled.
Reject the source pointer types that a BPF_LDX would have had that fault
protection applied to, i.e. the ones bpf_convert_ctx_accesses() turns
into BPF_PROBE_MEM: a bare PTR_TO_BTF_ID, PTR_TO_BTF_ID | PTR_UNTRUSTED,
PTR_TO_BTF_ID | MEM_ALLOC | PTR_UNTRUSTED and PTR_TO_MEM | MEM_RDONLY |
PTR_UNTRUSTED.
This is reachable e.g. by loading ->mm out of a trusted task_struct
yields an untrusted pointer to mm_struct, and it is NULL for a kernel
thread:
[...]
SEC("tp_btf/sched_switch")
int BPF_PROG(demo, bool preempt, struct task_struct prev,
struct task_struct next)
{
struct mm_struct mm = next->mm; / untrusted */
<pre>
out_ldx = (__u64)mm->pgd; /* BPF_LDX */
out_acq = load_acquire(&mm->pgd); /* BPF_LOAD_ACQ */
return 0;
</pre>
}
[...]
Both dereference the same pointer, but only the BPF_LDX is protected
(x86-64 JIT, jump targets shown prog-relative):
[...]
; out_ldx = (__u64)mm->pgd;
17: movq $-10485760, %r10
1e: movq %rsi, %r11
21: addq $184, %r11
28: subq %r10, %r11
2b: movabsq $140737498841088, %r10
35: cmpq %r10, %r11
38: ja 0x3e <-- kernel addr?
3a: xorl %edi, %edi <-- no: dst = 0, skip the load
3c: jmp 0x45
3e: movq 184(%rsi), %rdi <-- yes: load + extable entry
[...]
; load_acquire(&mm->pgd)
53: movq %rsi, %rdi
56: movq 184(%rdi), %rax <-- no check, no extable entry
[...]
Note that BPF_PROBE_MEM is not visible in a bpftool xlated dump, as
bpf_insn_prepare_dump() rewrites it back to BPF_MEM.
A PTR_TRUSTED pointer is deliberately not on the list. Such a load is
not converted either, but it does not need to be, since the pointer is
guaranteed live, so load-acquire from it stays allowed.
The check is gated on BPF_LOAD_ACQ so that atomic RMW and store-release
error messages are unchanged; writes (RMW / store-release) to such
pointers are already rejected elsewhere, so only load-acquire needs this.