[PATCH 1/3] platform/x86: dell-smbios-wmi: Fix chardev resource management

From: Armin Wolf

Date: Thu Jul 16 2026 - 01:34:21 EST


When unbinding the WMI driver while a userspace application has
an open file descriptor for the character device, a UAF occurs:

KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _copy_to_user from platform/x86/dell-smbios-wmi

The reason for this is that even after calling misc_deregister(),
userspace appications can still call read() and/or ioctl() on open
file descriptors associated with the already unregistered character
device. This causes a UAF by attempting to access the already freed
state container of the WMI driver.

Fix this by no longer storing the state container inside
filp->private_data. Instead retrieve the state container using
get_first_smbios_priv() and return -ENODEV if the state container
does not exist anymore.

Reported-by: Shuangpeng Bai <shuangpeng.kernel@xxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/platform-driver-x86/178144969601.60470.13396800403157907003@xxxxxxxxx/
Fixes: 93885e85a77f ("platform/x86: dell-smbios-wmi: Stop using WMI chardev")
Signed-off-by: Armin Wolf <W_Armin@xxxxxx>
---
drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c | 66 ++++++++++-----------
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c b/drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c
index 64d0871b706e..c8a6e711283d 100644
--- a/drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c
+++ b/drivers/platform/x86/dell/dell-smbios-wmi.c
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
*/
#define pr_fmt(fmt) KBUILD_MODNAME ": " fmt

+#include <linux/cleanup.h>
#include <linux/device.h>
#include <linux/dmi.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
@@ -13,14 +14,14 @@
#include <linux/miscdevice.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/mutex.h>
+#include <linux/rwsem.h>
#include <linux/uaccess.h>
#include <linux/wmi.h>
#include <uapi/linux/wmi.h>
#include "dell-smbios.h"
#include "dell-wmi-descriptor.h"

-static DEFINE_MUTEX(call_mutex);
-static DEFINE_MUTEX(list_mutex);
+static DECLARE_RWSEM(list_lock);
static int wmi_supported;

struct misc_bios_flags_structure {
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ struct misc_bios_flags_structure {
#define DELL_WMI_SMBIOS_GUID "A80593CE-A997-11DA-B012-B622A1EF5492"

struct wmi_smbios_priv {
+ struct mutex call_lock; /* Protects the content of the SMBIOS buffer */
struct dell_wmi_smbios_buffer *buf;
struct list_head list;
struct wmi_device *wdev;
@@ -87,40 +89,35 @@ static int dell_smbios_wmi_call(struct calling_interface_buffer *buffer)
size_t size;
int ret;

- mutex_lock(&call_mutex);
+ guard(rwsem_read)(&list_lock);
+
priv = get_first_smbios_priv();
- if (!priv) {
- ret = -ENODEV;
- goto out_wmi_call;
- }
+ if (!priv)
+ return -ENODEV;

size = sizeof(struct calling_interface_buffer);
difference = priv->req_buf_size - sizeof(u64) - size;

+ guard(mutex)(&priv->call_lock);
+
memset(&priv->buf->ext, 0, difference);
memcpy(&priv->buf->std, buffer, size);
ret = run_smbios_call(priv->wdev);
memcpy(buffer, &priv->buf->std, size);
-out_wmi_call:
- mutex_unlock(&call_mutex);

return ret;
}

-static int dell_smbios_wmi_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
+static ssize_t dell_smbios_wmi_read(struct file *filp, char __user *buffer, size_t length,
+ loff_t *offset)
{
struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv;

- priv = container_of(filp->private_data, struct wmi_smbios_priv, char_dev);
- filp->private_data = priv;
+ guard(rwsem_read)(&list_lock);

- return nonseekable_open(inode, filp);
-}
-
-static ssize_t dell_smbios_wmi_read(struct file *filp, char __user *buffer, size_t length,
- loff_t *offset)
-{
- struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv = filp->private_data;
+ priv = get_first_smbios_priv();
+ if (!priv)
+ return -ENODEV;

return simple_read_from_buffer(buffer, length, offset, &priv->req_buf_size,
sizeof(priv->req_buf_size));
@@ -167,22 +164,24 @@ static long dell_smbios_wmi_do_ioctl(struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv,
static long dell_smbios_wmi_ioctl(struct file *filp, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg)
{
struct dell_wmi_smbios_buffer __user *input = (struct dell_wmi_smbios_buffer __user *)arg;
- struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv = filp->private_data;
- long ret;
+ struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv;

if (cmd != DELL_WMI_SMBIOS_CMD)
return -ENOIOCTLCMD;

- mutex_lock(&call_mutex);
- ret = dell_smbios_wmi_do_ioctl(priv, input);
- mutex_unlock(&call_mutex);
+ guard(rwsem_read)(&list_lock);

- return ret;
+ priv = get_first_smbios_priv();
+ if (!priv)
+ return -ENODEV;
+
+ guard(mutex)(&priv->call_lock);
+
+ return dell_smbios_wmi_do_ioctl(priv, input);
}

static const struct file_operations dell_smbios_wmi_fops = {
.owner = THIS_MODULE,
- .open = dell_smbios_wmi_open,
.read = dell_smbios_wmi_read,
.unlocked_ioctl = dell_smbios_wmi_ioctl,
.compat_ioctl = compat_ptr_ioctl,
@@ -254,6 +253,10 @@ static int dell_smbios_wmi_probe(struct wmi_device *wdev, const void *context)
if (!priv->buf)
return -ENOMEM;

+ ret = devm_mutex_init(&wdev->dev, &priv->call_lock);
+ if (ret)
+ return ret;
+
ret = dell_smbios_wmi_register_chardev(priv);
if (ret)
return ret;
@@ -262,9 +265,8 @@ static int dell_smbios_wmi_probe(struct wmi_device *wdev, const void *context)
if (ret)
return ret;

- mutex_lock(&list_mutex);
+ guard(rwsem_write)(&list_lock);
list_add_tail(&priv->list, &wmi_list);
- mutex_unlock(&list_mutex);

return 0;
}
@@ -273,12 +275,10 @@ static void dell_smbios_wmi_remove(struct wmi_device *wdev)
{
struct wmi_smbios_priv *priv = dev_get_drvdata(&wdev->dev);

- mutex_lock(&call_mutex);
- mutex_lock(&list_mutex);
- list_del(&priv->list);
- mutex_unlock(&list_mutex);
dell_smbios_unregister_device(&wdev->dev);
- mutex_unlock(&call_mutex);
+
+ guard(rwsem_write)(&list_lock);
+ list_del(&priv->list);
}

static const struct wmi_device_id dell_smbios_wmi_id_table[] = {
--
2.39.5