In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Both cadence-quadspi ->runtime_suspend() and ->runtime_resume() implementations start with: struct cqspi_st *cqspi = dev_get_drvdata(dev); struct spi_controller *hos…

Overview

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

Both cadence-quadspi ->runtime_suspend() and ->runtime_resume() implementations start with:

struct cqspi_st *cqspi = dev_get_drvdata(dev);
struct spi_controller *host = dev_get_drvdata(dev);

This obviously cannot be correct, unless "struct cqspi_st" is the first member of " struct spi_controller", or the other way around, but it is not the case. "struct spi_controller" is allocated by devm_spi_alloc_host(), which allocates an extra amount of memory for private data, used to store "struct cqspi_st".

The ->probe() function of the cadence-quadspi driver then sets the device drvdata to store the address of the "struct cqspi_st" structure. Therefore:

struct cqspi_st *cqspi = dev_get_drvdata(dev);

is correct, but:

struct spi_controller *host = dev_get_drvdata(dev);

is not, as it makes "host" point not to a "struct spi_controller" but to the same "struct cqspi_st" structure as above.

This obviously leads to bad things (memory corruption, kernel crashes) directly during ->probe(), as ->probe() enables the device using PM runtime, leading the ->runtime_resume() hook being called, which in turns calls spi_controller_resume() with the wrong pointer.

This has at least been reported [0] to cause a kernel crash, but the exact behavior will depend on the memory contents.

[0] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240226121803.5a7r5wkpbbowcxgx@dhruva/

This issue potentially affects all platforms that are currently using the cadence-quadspi driver.

Affected

• linux_kernel >= 6.4, < 6.6.21
• linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.7.9
• linux_kernel = 4.19.283
• linux_kernel = 5.4.243
• linux_kernel = 5.10.180
• linux_kernel = 5.15.111
• linux_kernel = 6.1.28
• linux_kernel = 6.2.15
• linux_kernel = 6.3.2
• linux_kernel = 6.8

Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

• linux_kernel 6.7.9