[PATCH] kexec, kernel 2.6.26.5, segmentation fault in kimage_add_entry

From: Jonathan Steel
Date: Tue Sep 16 2008 - 15:30:26 EST


A segmentation fault can occur in kimage_add_entry in kexec.c when loading a kernel image into memory. The fault occurs because a page is requested by calling kimage_alloc_page with gfp_mask GFP_KERNEL and the function may actually return a page with gfp_mask GFP_HIGHUSER. The high mem page is returned because it was swapped with the kernel page due to the kernel page being a page that will shortly be copied to.

This patch ensures that kimage_alloc_page returns a page that was created with the correct gfp flags.

--- linux-2.6.26.5.orig/kernel/kexec.c 2008-09-16 13:17:56.000000000 -0400
+++ linux-2.6.26.5/kernel/kexec.c 2008-09-16 13:26:35.000000000 -0400
@@ -743,8 +743,15 @@ static struct page *kimage_alloc_page(st
*old = addr | (*old & ~PAGE_MASK);

/* The old page I have found cannot be a
- * destination page, so return it.
- */
+ * destination page, so return it if its
+ * gfp_flags honor the ones passed in.
+ */
+ if (!(gfp_mask & __GFP_HIGHMEM) &&
+ PageHighMem(old_page)) {
+ kimage_free_pages(old_page);
+ continue;
+ }
+
addr = old_addr;
page = old_page;
break;

Signed-off-by: Jonathan Steel <jon.steel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Jonathan Steel
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/