CVE-2023-52835: perf/core: Bail out early if the request AUX area is out of bound

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-05-21 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-129

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: perf/core: Bail out early if the request AUX area is out of bound When perf-record with a large AUX area, e.g 4GB, it fails with: #perf record -C 0 -m ,4G -e arm_spe_0// -- sleep 1 failed to mmap with 12 (Cannot allocate memory) and it reveals a WARNING with __alloc_pages(): ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: CPU: 44 PID: 17573 at mm/page_alloc.c:5568 __alloc_pages+0x1ec/0x248 Call trace: __alloc_pages+0x1ec/0x248 __kmalloc_large_node+0xc0/0x1f8 __kmalloc_node+0x134/0x1e8 rb_alloc_aux+0xe0/0x298 perf_mmap+0x440/0x660 mmap_region+0x308/0x8a8 do_mmap+0x3c0/0x528 vm_mmap_pgoff+0xf4/0x1b8 ksys_mmap_pgoff+0x18c/0x218 __arm64_sys_mmap+0x38/0x58 invoke_syscall+0x50/0x128 el0_svc_common.constprop.0+0x58/0x188 do_el0_svc+0x34/0x50 el0_svc+0x34/0x108 el0t_64_sync_handler+0xb8/0xc0 el0t_64_sync+0x1a4/0x1a8 'rb->aux_pages' allocated by kcalloc() is a pointer array which is used to maintains AUX trace pages. The allocated page for this array is physically contiguous (and virtually contiguous) with an order of 0..MAX_ORDER. If the size of pointer array crosses the limitation set by MAX_ORDER, it reveals a WARNING. So bail out early with -ENOMEM if the request AUX area is out of bound, e.g.: #perf record -C 0 -m ,4G -e arm_spe_0// -- sleep 1 failed to mmap with 12 (Cannot allocate memory)

Affected products

Linux kernel: before 4.19.300; from 4.20 before 5.4.262; from 5.5 before 5.10.202; from 5.11 before 5.15.140; from 5.16 before 6.1.64; from 6.2 before 6.5.13 — fixed in 4.19.300, 5.10.202, 5.15.140, 5.4.262, 6.1.64, 6.5.13

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Linux kernel 4.19.300, 5.10.202, 5.15.140, 5.4.262. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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