[Bug 1388262] [NEW] Prevent unsuitable scanning of /dev/mem and enable SMBIOS support for all UEFI platforms

[Leif Lindholm]

Public bug reported:

SMBIOS defines that on x86 platforms one can scan for an entry point in
the physical address range 0xf0000-0xfffff - which is achieved by
mmapping /dev/mem. However, this is invalid for most other
architectures. Meanwhile, UEFI has alternative defined methods of
discovery, so SMBIOS data can be easily found on at least IA64, ARM and
AArch64.

lshw currently has a stack of ifdefs to not attempt scanning on certain
listed architectures. New architectures, like AArch64, end up with the
lshw command potentially reading sensitive i/o regions, causing system
crashes.

The attached patch (which has been logged in upstream ticketing system,
but is pending moderation there) flips the logic to only perform raw
memory scanning on i386/x86_64 and also enables looking for SMBIOS
tables on all UEFI platforms (in a safe manner).

** Affects: lshw (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

** Attachment added: "smbios-noscan.patch"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1388262/+attachment/4250317/+files/smbios-noscan.patch

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1388262

Title:
  Prevent unsuitable scanning of /dev/mem and enable SMBIOS support for
  all UEFI platforms

Status in “lshw” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  SMBIOS defines that on x86 platforms one can scan for an entry point
  in the physical address range 0xf0000-0xfffff - which is achieved by
  mmapping /dev/mem. However, this is invalid for most other
  architectures. Meanwhile, UEFI has alternative defined methods of
  discovery, so SMBIOS data can be easily found on at least IA64, ARM
  and AArch64.

  lshw currently has a stack of ifdefs to not attempt scanning on
  certain listed architectures. New architectures, like AArch64, end up
  with the lshw command potentially reading sensitive i/o regions,
  causing system crashes.

  The attached patch (which has been logged in upstream ticketing
  system, but is pending moderation there) flips the logic to only
  perform raw memory scanning on i386/x86_64 and also enables looking
  for SMBIOS tables on all UEFI platforms (in a safe manner).

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