Re: [PATCH v2] 9p/xen: validate the response size from the backend
From: Dominique Martinet
Date: Wed Oct 28 2026 - 17:04:39 EST
Yehyeong Lee wrote on Mon, Oct 05, 2026 at 09:56:38PM +0900:
> p9_xen_response() takes the length of an incoming response from the ring
> -- the first field of the 9p header, which the Xen transport reuses as
> its framing header -- and uses it to advance the consumer index, but
> never checks that it is at least the header size or no larger than the
> number of bytes the backend has actually produced.
>
> A malicious or buggy backend can post a response whose size is smaller
> than the header (for example 0). The consumer index then never advances,
> so the response work re-reads the same ring contents instead of making
> progress. In testing this raced with the teardown that the malformed
> reply triggers and dereferenced a freed p9_client:
>
> 9pfs 9pfs-0: Wrong req tag=ffff
> BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000060
> #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
> #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
> PGD 0 P4D 0
> Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
> CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 11 Comm: kworker/0:1 Not tainted 7.2.0-rc5 #6 PREEMPT(lazy)
> Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
> Workqueue: events p9_xen_response
> RIP: 0010:idr_find+0x4/0x10
> RSP: 0018:ffffbf5d80063de8 EFLAGS: 00010202
> RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffffa229c21195a0 RCX: ffffa229c2400000
> RDX: ffffa229c11c2200 RSI: 000000000000ffff RDI: 0000000000000050
> RBP: 000000000000ffff R08: 3fffffffffffdfff R09: ffffffffffffffff
> R10: 3fffffffffffdfff R11: ffffffff87a60e80 R12: 0000000000000050
> R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000000000000ffff R15: 0000000000100000
> FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffffa22a7661c000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
> CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
> CR2: 0000000000000060 CR3: 000000003ac34002 CR4: 0000000000770ef0
> PKRU: 55555554
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> p9_tag_lookup+0x2b/0x90
> p9_xen_response+0x17c/0x2e0
> process_one_work+0x16a/0x3a0
> worker_thread+0x172/0x2e0
> kthread+0xdd/0x110
> ret_from_fork+0x18b/0x240
> ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30
> </TASK>
> Modules linked in:
> CR2: 0000000000000060
> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
>
> Reject a response whose size is outside [sizeof(header), queued] before
> using it, matching the validation the backend already applies to
> incoming requests.
>
> Fixes: f66c72bea129 ("xen/9pfs: receive responses")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Yehyeong Lee <yhlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Thanks, picked up
--
Dominique Martinet | Asmadeus