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authorAli Ahmet Memis <ali@iusegentoo.com>2026-08-21 01:45:27 +0000
committerStafford Horne <shorne@gmail.com>2026-08-29 07:32:26 +0100
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tree137c22dd795222931b9d2bf2501d37cd766741aa /Documentation/dev-tools/sparse.rst
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openrisc: fix arbitrary kernel memory access via or1k_atomic syscallgrafted
sys_or1k_atomic() (syscall 244 in the "or1k" ABI) takes two user pointers, v1 and v2, and swaps the words they point to in hand-written assembly. l.lwz r29,0(r4) l.lwz r27,0(r5) l.sw 0(r4),r27 l.sw 0(r5),r29 The pointers are not checked with access_ok(). The four memory accesses also have no exception table entries. A caller passes a kernel address as either pointer, and the syscall reads from and writes to it directly. This gives an unprivileged process a kernel read/write primitive. It overwrites kernel data such as the sys_call_table, gaining code execution in kernel context. Check both pointers before entering the critical section. Add fixups for the four memory accesses so faults on valid but unmapped user addresses return -EFAULT. [shorne@gmail.com: fix comment style] Fixes: 9d02a4283e9c ("OpenRISC: Boot code") Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Signed-off-by: Ali Ahmet Memis <ali@iusegentoo.com> Signed-off-by: Stafford Horne <shorne@gmail.com>
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+.. Copyright 2004 Linus Torvalds
+.. Copyright 2004 Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>
+.. Copyright 2006 Bob Copeland <me@bobcopeland.com>
+
+Sparse
+======
+
+Sparse is a semantic checker for C programs; it can be used to find a
+number of potential problems with kernel code. See
+https://lwn.net/Articles/689907/ for an overview of sparse; this document
+contains some kernel-specific sparse information.
+More information on sparse, mainly about its internals, can be found in
+its official pages at https://sparse.docs.kernel.org.
+
+
+Using sparse for typechecking
+-----------------------------
+
+"__bitwise" is a type attribute, so you have to do something like this::
+
+ typedef int __bitwise pm_request_t;
+
+ enum pm_request {
+ PM_SUSPEND = (__force pm_request_t) 1,
+ PM_RESUME = (__force pm_request_t) 2
+ };
+
+which makes PM_SUSPEND and PM_RESUME "bitwise" integers (the "__force" is
+there because sparse will complain about casting to/from a bitwise type,
+but in this case we really _do_ want to force the conversion). And because
+the enum values are all the same type, now "enum pm_request" will be that
+type too.
+
+And with gcc, all the "__bitwise"/"__force stuff" goes away, and it all
+ends up looking just like integers to gcc.
+
+Quite frankly, you don't need the enum there. The above all really just
+boils down to one special "int __bitwise" type.
+
+So the simpler way is to just do::
+
+ typedef int __bitwise pm_request_t;
+
+ #define PM_SUSPEND ((__force pm_request_t) 1)
+ #define PM_RESUME ((__force pm_request_t) 2)
+
+and you now have all the infrastructure needed for strict typechecking.
+
+One small note: the constant integer "0" is special. You can use a
+constant zero as a bitwise integer type without sparse ever complaining.
+This is because "bitwise" (as the name implies) was designed for making
+sure that bitwise types don't get mixed up (little-endian vs big-endian
+vs cpu-endian vs whatever), and there the constant "0" really _is_
+special.
+
+Getting sparse
+--------------
+
+You can get tarballs of the latest released versions from:
+https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/devel/sparse/dist/
+
+Alternatively, you can get snapshots of the latest development version
+of sparse using git to clone::
+
+ git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/sparse/sparse.git
+
+Once you have it, just do::
+
+ make
+ make install
+
+as a regular user, and it will install sparse in your ~/bin directory.
+
+Using sparse
+------------
+
+Do a kernel make with "make C=1" to run sparse on all the C files that get
+recompiled, or use "make C=2" to run sparse on the files whether they need to
+be recompiled or not. The latter is a fast way to check the whole tree if you
+have already built it.
+
+The optional make variable CF can be used to pass arguments to sparse. The
+build system passes -Wbitwise to sparse automatically.
+
+Note that sparse defines the __CHECKER__ preprocessor symbol.