[PATCH v2] nvmet: fix pre-auth out-of-bounds heap read in Discovery Get Log Page
hexlabsecurity at proton.me
hexlabsecurity at proton.me
Thu May 28 09:02:17 PDT 2026
>From 6710e68439c458d691a4fe5c7fa354404745dd0a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bryam Vargas <hexlabsecurity at proton.me>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 15:00:00 -0500
Subject: [PATCH v2] nvmet: fix pre-auth out-of-bounds heap read in Discovery
Get Log Page
nvmet_execute_disc_get_log_page() validates only the dword alignment
of the host-supplied Log Page Offset (lpo). The 64-bit offset is then
added to a small kzalloc'd buffer that holds the discovery log page
and the result is passed straight to nvmet_copy_to_sgl(), which
memcpy()s data_len bytes out to the host with no source-side bound
check:
u64 offset = nvmet_get_log_page_offset(req->cmd); /* 64-bit host */
size_t data_len = nvmet_get_log_page_len(req->cmd); /* 32-bit host */
...
if (offset & 0x3) { ... } /* only check */
...
alloc_len = sizeof(*hdr) + entry_size * discovery_log_entries(req);
buffer = kzalloc(alloc_len, GFP_KERNEL);
...
status = nvmet_copy_to_sgl(req, 0, buffer + offset, data_len);
The Discovery controller is unauthenticated -- nvmet_host_allowed()
returns true unconditionally for the discovery subsystem -- so the call
is reachable pre-authentication by any TCP/RDMA/FC peer that can reach
the nvmet target. With a discovery log page of ~1 KiB, an attacker
requesting up to 4 KiB starting at offset == alloc_len reads the next
slab page out and gets its content returned over the fabric (an
empirical run on a default nvmet-tcp loopback target leaked 81
canonical kernel pointers in one Get Log Page response). Pointing the
offset at unmapped kernel memory faults the in-kernel memcpy and
crashes (or panics, on panic_on_oops=1) the target host instead.
The attacker-controlled source-side offset pattern
"nvmet_copy_to_sgl(req, 0, buffer + ATTACKER_OFFSET, ...)" is unique
to nvmet_execute_disc_get_log_page in the entire nvmet codebase: every
other Get Log Page handler in admin-cmd.c either ignores lpo (and
silently starts every response at offset 0) or tracks a local
destination offset with a fixed source pointer.
Validate the host-supplied offset against the log page size, cap the
copy length to what is actually available, and zero-fill any remainder
of the host transfer buffer. The zero-fill matches the existing
short-response pattern in nvmet_execute_get_log_changed_ns()
(admin-cmd.c) and prevents leaking transport SGL contents when the
host asks for more bytes than the log page contains.
Reported-by: Bryam Vargas <hexlabsecurity at proton.me>
Suggested-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch at lst.de>
Fixes: a07b4970f464 ("nvmet: add a generic NVMe target")
Cc: stable at vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Bryam Vargas <hexlabsecurity at proton.me>
---
v2: rewrote the validation flow per Christoph's suggestion -- single
`out_free_buffer` cleanup label reached by `goto` on the offset
overflow path, `min_t(size_t, ...)` for the capped copy length,
one fewer level of nesting. `min_t(size_t, ...)` (rather than
bare `min()`) because `data_len` is `size_t` and `alloc_len -
offset` promotes to `unsigned long long` (since `offset` is
`u64`), which trips the kernel min() __typecheck; the size_t
rendition matches the analogous shape in io-cmd-bdev.c:228.
Empirically verified on a Linux 6.12.90 KASAN INLINE +
kasan.fault=panic VM: pre-fix `nvme get-log lpo=alloc_len
len=4096` reboots the host via KASAN catching the OOB memcpy;
post-fix the same probe returns cleanly with zero kernel-pointer
qwords leaked, and `lpo > alloc_len` returns
NVME_SC_INVALID_FIELD as intended.
v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-nvme/ -- (search by Reported-by)
drivers/nvme/target/discovery.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/target/discovery.c b/drivers/nvme/target/discovery.c
index e9b35549e254..114869d16a1f 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/target/discovery.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/target/discovery.c
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ static void nvmet_execute_disc_get_log_page(struct nvmet_req *req)
u64 offset = nvmet_get_log_page_offset(req->cmd);
size_t data_len = nvmet_get_log_page_len(req->cmd);
size_t alloc_len;
+ size_t copy_len;
struct nvmet_subsys_link *p;
struct nvmet_port *r;
u32 numrec = 0;
@@ -242,7 +243,27 @@ static void nvmet_execute_disc_get_log_page(struct nvmet_req *req)
up_read(&nvmet_config_sem);
- status = nvmet_copy_to_sgl(req, 0, buffer + offset, data_len);
+ /*
+ * Validate the host-supplied log page offset before copying out.
+ * Without this check, the host controls a 64-bit byte offset into
+ * a small kzalloc'd buffer: a value past the log page lets the
+ * subsequent memcpy read adjacent kernel heap, and a value aimed
+ * at unmapped kernel memory faults the in-kernel copy and crashes
+ * the target host. The Discovery controller is unauthenticated,
+ * so the bug is reachable from any reachable fabric peer.
+ */
+ if (offset > alloc_len) {
+ req->error_loc =
+ offsetof(struct nvme_get_log_page_command, lpo);
+ status = NVME_SC_INVALID_FIELD | NVME_STATUS_DNR;
+ goto out_free_buffer;
+ }
+
+ copy_len = min_t(size_t, data_len, alloc_len - offset);
+ status = nvmet_copy_to_sgl(req, 0, buffer + offset, copy_len);
+ if (!status && copy_len < data_len)
+ status = nvmet_zero_sgl(req, copy_len, data_len - copy_len);
+out_free_buffer:
kfree(buffer);
out:
nvmet_req_complete(req, status);
--
2.43.0
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