[PATCH 3/7] vfio/cdx: prevent read-only region mappings from becoming writable

From: Abdifatah Suruur

Date: Mon Sep 21 2026 - 08:53:42 EST


vfio_cdx_mmap() rejects writable mappings of regions without the WRITE
flag, but leaves VM_MAYWRITE set. Userspace can map such a region
read-only and then upgrade the mapping to writable with mprotect(),
writing to MMIO regions the device marks read-only.

Clear VM_MAYWRITE for regions without the WRITE flag, as i915 does for
its read-only objects and as fixed in drm/vc4 (CVE-2026-68445),
drm/panthor (CVE-2024-53071) and commit a5edadbae57e ("ptp: vmclock:
prevent read-only mappings from becoming writable").

Note this is defensive hardening: no in-tree cdx device currently
publishes a region without the WRITE flag. The guard costs nothing and
keeps the mmap() interface honest if a read-only region ever appears.

Fixes: 234489ac56130 ("vfio/cdx: add support for CDX bus")
Signed-off-by: Abdifatah Suruur <suruurism@xxxxxxxxx>
---
--- a/drivers/vfio/cdx/main.c
+++ b/drivers/vfio/cdx/main.c
@@ -284,5 +284,9 @@
if (!(vdev->regions[index].flags & VFIO_REGION_INFO_FLAG_WRITE) &&
(vma->vm_flags & VM_WRITE))
return -EPERM;

+ /* Prevent read-only region mappings from being upgraded with mprotect() */
+ if (!(vdev->regions[index].flags & VFIO_REGION_INFO_FLAG_WRITE))
+ vm_flags_clear(vma, VM_MAYWRITE);
+
return vfio_cdx_mmap_mmio(vdev->regions[index], vma);
}