[PATCH 1/4] ARM: cacheinfo: avoid out-of-bounds write in populate_cache_leaves()

From: Karl Mehltretter

Date: Sat Sep 12 2026 - 16:05:03 EST


populate_cache_leaves() advances its bounds-checking index once per
cache level, but split instruction/data caches consume two entries.
CLIDR-based allocation supplies enough entries. Early allocation from
the device tree can supply fewer and expose an out-of-bounds write.

Count each written leaf and stop before a split level that does not
fit. This prepares ARM for DT-based early allocation and matches
commit 875d742cf532 ("arm64: cacheinfo: Avoid out-of-bounds write to
cacheinfo array").

Fixes: a9ff94477836 ("ARM: 9433/2: implement cacheinfo support")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Karl Mehltretter <kmehltretter@xxxxxxxxx>
---
The overrun was reproduced with KASAN on QEMU virt, cortex-a15, using
a device tree whose cpu nodes carry only d-cache-size, so one leaf.
With patch 4 alone the boot reports a slab-out-of-bounds write in
populate_cache_leaves(). With this patch the boot is clean.

arch/arm/kernel/cacheinfo.c | 12 +++++++-----
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm/kernel/cacheinfo.c b/arch/arm/kernel/cacheinfo.c
index e1469b641780..860eeb03cfe5 100644
--- a/arch/arm/kernel/cacheinfo.c
+++ b/arch/arm/kernel/cacheinfo.c
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ int populate_cache_leaves(unsigned int cpu)
unsigned int level, idx;
enum cache_type type;
struct cpu_cacheinfo *this_cpu_ci = get_cpu_cacheinfo(cpu);
- struct cacheinfo *this_leaf = this_cpu_ci->info_list;
+ struct cacheinfo *infos = this_cpu_ci->info_list;
unsigned int arch = cpu_architecture();

/* CLIDR is not present before ARMv7/v7m */
@@ -159,13 +159,15 @@ int populate_cache_leaves(unsigned int cpu)
return -EOPNOTSUPP;

for (idx = 0, level = 1; level <= this_cpu_ci->num_levels &&
- idx < this_cpu_ci->num_leaves; idx++, level++) {
+ idx < this_cpu_ci->num_leaves; level++) {
type = get_cache_type(level);
if (type == CACHE_TYPE_SEPARATE) {
- ci_leaf_init(this_leaf++, CACHE_TYPE_DATA, level);
- ci_leaf_init(this_leaf++, CACHE_TYPE_INST, level);
+ if (idx + 1 >= this_cpu_ci->num_leaves)
+ break;
+ ci_leaf_init(&infos[idx++], CACHE_TYPE_DATA, level);
+ ci_leaf_init(&infos[idx++], CACHE_TYPE_INST, level);
} else {
- ci_leaf_init(this_leaf++, type, level);
+ ci_leaf_init(&infos[idx++], type, level);
}
}

--
2.53.0