[3.13.y.z extended stable] Patch "x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels" has been added to staging queue

[Kamal Mostafa]

This is a note to let you know that I have just added a patch titled

    x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels

to the linux-3.13.y-queue branch of the 3.13.y.z extended stable tree 
which can be found at:

 http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/linux.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/linux-3.13.y-queue

This patch is scheduled to be released in version 3.13.11.1.

If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to this tree, please 
reply to this email.

For more information about the 3.13.y.z tree, see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Dev/ExtendedStable

Thanks.
-Kamal

------

>From 4e6e2f877ba22c581bada71a8f4ad5e83a195e52 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at linux.intel.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:31:54 -0700
Subject: x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels

commit b3b42ac2cbae1f3cecbb6229964a4d48af31d382 upstream.

The IRET instruction, when returning to a 16-bit segment, only
restores the bottom 16 bits of the user space stack pointer.  We have
a software workaround for that ("espfix") for the 32-bit kernel, but
it relies on a nonzero stack segment base which is not available in
32-bit mode.

Since 16-bit support is somewhat crippled anyway on a 64-bit kernel
(no V86 mode), and most (if not quite all) 64-bit processors support
virtualization for the users who really need it, simply reject
attempts at creating a 16-bit segment when running on top of a 64-bit
kernel.

Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds at linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa at linux.intel.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/n/tip-kicdm89kzw9lldryb1br9od0@git.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Kamal Mostafa <kamal at canonical.com>
---
 arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c | 11 +++++++++++
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c b/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c
index ebc9873..af1d14a 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c
@@ -229,6 +229,17 @@ static int write_ldt(void __user *ptr, unsigned long bytecount, int oldmode)
 		}
 	}

+	/*
+	 * On x86-64 we do not support 16-bit segments due to
+	 * IRET leaking the high bits of the kernel stack address.
+	 */
+#ifdef CONFIG_X86_64
+	if (!ldt_info.seg_32bit) {
+		error = -EINVAL;
+		goto out_unlock;
+	}
+#endif
+
 	fill_ldt(&ldt, &ldt_info);
 	if (oldmode)
 		ldt.avl = 0;
--
1.9.1