This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels to the 3.4-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: x86-64-modify_ldt-ban-16-bit-segments-on-64-bit-kernels.patch and it can be found in the queue-3.4 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From b3b42ac2cbae1f3cecbb6229964a4d48af31d382 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:31:54 -0700 Subject: x86-64, modify_ldt: Ban 16-bit segments on 64-bit kernels From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/n/tip-kicdm89kzw9lldryb1br9od0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c | 11 +++++++++++ 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+) --- a/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/ldt.c @@ -229,6 +229,17 @@ static int write_ldt(void __user *ptr, u } } + /* + * 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; Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from hpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx are queue-3.4/x86-64-modify_ldt-ban-16-bit-segments-on-64-bit-kernels.patch -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe stable" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html