[PATCH v2] nvmem: core: Fix OOB read for bit offsets of more than one byte

From: Janne Grunau

Date: Sun Sep 20 2026 - 12:46:44 EST


When the bit offset is BITS_PER_BYTE or larger the read position is
advanced by `bytes_offset`. This is not taken into account in the
per-byte read loop which still reads `cell->bytes` resulting in an out of
bounds read of `bytes_offset` bytes. The information read OOB does not
leak directly as the erroneously read bits are cleared.

Detected by KASAN while looking for a use-after-free in simplefb.c.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fixes: 7a06ef751077 ("nvmem: core: fix bit offsets of more than one byte")
Tested-by: Dmitry Sinyavin <sinyavin@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Janne Grunau <j@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- added "Cc: stable@..."
- added Dmitry Sinyavin's Tested-by:
- use 12 char SHA1 in Fixes: tag
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250901-nvmem-read-oob-bit-offset-v1-1-b610e18cdd3c@xxxxxxxxxx

To: Srinivas Kandagatla <srini@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Dmitry Baryshkov <lumag@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---
drivers/nvmem/core.c | 4 +++-
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/nvmem/core.c b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
index 0556d140170a..b4e5069d9e38 100644
--- a/drivers/nvmem/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvmem/core.c
@@ -1598,12 +1598,14 @@ static void nvmem_shift_read_buffer_in_place(struct nvmem_cell_entry *cell, void
*p = *b++ >> bit_offset;

/* setup rest of the bytes if any */
- for (i = 1; i < cell->bytes; i++) {
+ for (i = 1; i < (cell->bytes - bytes_offset); i++) {
/* Get bits from next byte and shift them towards msb */
*p++ |= *b << (BITS_PER_BYTE - bit_offset);

*p = *b++ >> bit_offset;
}
+ /* point to end of the buffer unused bits will be cleared */
+ p = buf + cell->bytes - 1;
} else if (p != b) {
memmove(p, b, cell->bytes - bytes_offset);
p += cell->bytes - 1;

---
base-commit: cee9395acd8043be0644b25c34bfa86623f2b935
change-id: 20250901-nvmem-read-oob-bit-offset-dc1c2f39af6c

Best regards,
--
Janne Grunau <j@xxxxxxxxxx>