CVE-2021-46961

irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups

State
Published
Severity
5.5 Medium
Published
Feb 27, 2024
Updated
May 11, 2026
Reserved
Feb 27, 2024

Read the record on cve.org

Description

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

irqchip/gic-v3: Do not enable irqs when handling spurious interrups

We triggered the following error while running our 4.19 kernel with the pseudo-NMI patches backported to it:

[ 14.816231] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 14.816231] kernel BUG at irq.c:99! [ 14.816232] Internal error: Oops - BUG: 0 [#1] SMP [ 14.816232] Process swapper/0 (pid: 0, stack limit = 0x(____ptrval____)) [ 14.816233] CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/0 Tainted: G O 4.19.95.aarch64 #14 [ 14.816233] Hardware name: evb (DT) [ 14.816234] pstate: 80400085 (Nzcv daIf +PAN -UAO) [ 14.816234] pc : asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816235] lr : asm_nmi_enter+0x18/0x98 [ 14.816235] sp : ffff000008003c50 [ 14.816235] pmr_save: 00000070 [ 14.816237] x29: ffff000008003c50 x28: ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816238] x27: 0000000000000000 x26: ffff000008004000 [ 14.816239] x25: 00000000015e0000 x24: ffff8008fb916000 [ 14.816240] x23: 0000000020400005 x22: ffff0000080817cc [ 14.816241] x21: ffff000008003da0 x20: 0000000000000060 [ 14.816242] x19: 00000000000003ff x18: ffffffffffffffff [ 14.816243] x17: 0000000000000008 x16: 003d090000000000 [ 14.816244] x15: ffff0000095ea6c8 x14: ffff8008fff5ab40 [ 14.816244] x13: ffff8008fff58b9d x12: 0000000000000000 [ 14.816245] x11: ffff000008c8a200 x10: 000000008e31fca5 [ 14.816246] x9 : ffff000008c8a208 x8 : 000000000000000f [ 14.816247] x7 : 0000000000000004 x6 : ffff8008fff58b9e [ 14.816248] x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816249] x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000080000000 [ 14.816250] x1 : 0000000000120000 x0 : ffff0000095f56c0 [ 14.816251] Call trace: [ 14.816251] asm_nmi_enter+0x94/0x98 [ 14.816251] el1_irq+0x8c/0x180 (IRQ C) [ 14.816252] gic_handle_irq+0xbc/0x2e4 [ 14.816252] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ B) [ 14.816253] arch_timer_handler_virt+0x38/0x58 [ 14.816253] handle_percpu_devid_irq+0x90/0x240 [ 14.816253] generic_handle_irq+0x34/0x50 [ 14.816254] __handle_domain_irq+0x68/0xc0 [ 14.816254] gic_handle_irq+0xf8/0x2e4 [ 14.816255] el1_irq+0xcc/0x180 (IRQ A) [ 14.816255] arch_cpu_idle+0x34/0x1c8 [ 14.816255] default_idle_call+0x24/0x44 [ 14.816256] do_idle+0x1d0/0x2c8 [ 14.816256] cpu_startup_entry+0x28/0x30 [ 14.816256] rest_init+0xb8/0xc8 [ 14.816257] start_kernel+0x4c8/0x4f4 [ 14.816257] Code: 940587f1 d5384100 b9401001 36a7fd01 (d4210000) [ 14.816258] Modules linked in: start_dp(O) smeth(O) [ 15.103092] ---[ end trace 701753956cb14aa8 ]--- [ 15.103093] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception in interrupt [ 15.103099] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs [ 15.103100] Kernel Offset: disabled [ 15.103100] CPU features: 0x36,a2400218 [ 15.103100] Memory Limit: none

which is cause by a 'BUG_ON(in_nmi())' in nmi_enter().

From the call trace, we can find three interrupts (noted A, B, C above): interrupt (A) is preempted by (B), which is further interrupted by (C).

Subsequent investigations show that (B) results in nmi_enter() being called, but that it actually is a spurious interrupt. Furthermore, interrupts are reenabled in the context of (B), and (C) fires with NMI priority. We end-up with a nested NMI situation, something we definitely do not want to (and cannot) handle.

The bug here is that spurious interrupts should never result in any state change, and we should just return to the interrupted context. Moving the handling of spurious interrupts as early as possible in the GICv3 handler fixes this issue.

[maz: rewrote commit message, corrected Fixes: tag]

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.15.5 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCISA-ADP

Weaknesses

The record names no weakness.

Affected Products

ProductVersions
LinuxLinux
  • 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c to before e7ea8e46e3b777be26aa855fe07778c415f24926Affected
  • 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c to before 7be4db5c2b59fa77071c93ca4329876fb9777202Affected
  • 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c to before ea817ac1014c04f47885532b55f5d0898deadfbaAffected
  • 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c to before 3f72d3709f53af72835af7dc8b15ba61611a0e36Affected
  • 3f1f3234bc2db1c16b9818b9a15a5d58ad45251c to before a97709f563a078e259bf0861cd259aa60332890aAffected
LinuxLinux
  • 5.1Affected
  • before 5.1Not affected
  • 5.4.118 through 5.4.*Not affected
  • 5.10.36 through 5.10.*Not affected
  • 5.11.20 through 5.11.*Not affected
  • 5.12.3 through 5.12.*Not affected
  • 5.13 and laterNot affected

References

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