[PATCH] x86/fred: Correct speculative safety in fred_extint()

From: Andrew Cooper

Date: Tue Jan 06 2026 - 08:15:20 EST


array_index_nospec() is no use if the result gets spilled to the stack, as
it makes the believed safe-under-speculation value subject to memory
predictions.

For all practical purposes, this means array_index_nospec() must be used in
the expression that accesses the array.

As the code currently stands, it's the wrong side of irqentry_enter(), and
'index' is put into %ebp across the function call.

Remove the index variable and reposition array_index_nospec(), so it's
calculated immediately before the array access.

Fixes: 14619d912b65 ("x86/fred: FRED entry/exit and dispatch code")
Signed-off-by: Andrew Cooper <andrew.cooper3@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
CC: Xin Li <xin@xxxxxxxxx>
CC: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx>
CC: Andy Lutomirski <luto@xxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
CC: Borislav Petkov <bp@xxxxxxxxx>
CC: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: x86@xxxxxxxxxx
CC: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This is why we have array_access_nospec() in Xen, so you can't separate the
safety calculation from the array access.

The observant reader might notice that the result of reading sysvec_table[] is
also subject to memory predictions. Aren't CPUs wonderful...

In practice, even having array_index_nospec() part of the array access
expression is no guarantee of avoiding spilling to the stack. KASAN is liable
to hide a function call behind the scenes, while UBSAN is very good at
inserting it's own unsafe range checks around objects it knows the size of.
Aren't compilers wonderful...
---
arch/x86/entry/entry_fred.c | 5 ++---
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/entry_fred.c b/arch/x86/entry/entry_fred.c
index 94e626cc6a07..4fc5b176d3ed 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/entry_fred.c
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/entry_fred.c
@@ -159,8 +159,6 @@ void __init fred_complete_exception_setup(void)
static noinstr void fred_extint(struct pt_regs *regs)
{
unsigned int vector = regs->fred_ss.vector;
- unsigned int index = array_index_nospec(vector - FIRST_SYSTEM_VECTOR,
- NR_SYSTEM_VECTORS);

if (WARN_ON_ONCE(vector < FIRST_EXTERNAL_VECTOR))
return;
@@ -169,7 +167,8 @@ static noinstr void fred_extint(struct pt_regs *regs)
irqentry_state_t state = irqentry_enter(regs);

instrumentation_begin();
- sysvec_table[index](regs);
+ sysvec_table[array_index_nospec(vector - FIRST_SYSTEM_VECTOR,
+ NR_SYSTEM_VECTORS)](regs);
instrumentation_end();
irqentry_exit(regs, state);
} else {

base-commit: 7f98ab9da046865d57c102fd3ca9669a29845f67
--
2.39.5