CVE-2024-50017

Technical Description

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

x86/mm/ident_map: Use gbpages only where full GB page should be mapped.

When ident_pud_init() uses only GB pages to create identity maps, large

ranges of addresses not actually requested can be included in the resulting

table; a 4K request will map a full GB. This can include a lot of extra

address space past that requested, including areas marked reserved by the

BIOS. That allows processor speculation into reserved regions, that on UV

systems can cause system halts.

Only use GB pages when map creation requests include the full GB page of

space. Fall back to using smaller 2M pages when only portions of a GB page

are included in the request.

No attempt is made to coalesce mapping requests. If a request requires a

map entry at the 2M (pmd) level, subsequent mapping requests within the

same 1G region will also be at the pmd level, even if adjacent or

overlapping such requests could have been combined to map a full

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from linux. Update linux_kernel to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Affected Products

References