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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
commit78004e9a87f240df03e2f73120d291763c32e0a7 (patch)
tree137c22dd795222931b9d2bf2501d37cd766741aa /Documentation/process/8.Conclusion.rst
downloadlinux-stable-78004e9a87f240df03e2f73120d291763c32e0a7.tar.gz
linux-stable-78004e9a87f240df03e2f73120d291763c32e0a7.zip
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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+.. _development_conclusion:
+
+For more information
+====================
+
+There are numerous sources of information on Linux kernel development and
+related topics. First among those will always be the Documentation
+directory found in the kernel source distribution. Start with the
+top-level :ref:`process/howto.rst <process_howto>`; also read
+:ref:`process/submitting-patches.rst <submittingpatches>`. Many internal
+kernel APIs are documented using the kerneldoc mechanism; "make htmldocs"
+or "make pdfdocs" can be used to generate those documents in HTML or PDF
+format (though the version of TeX shipped by some distributions runs into
+internal limits and fails to process the documents properly).
+
+Various web sites discuss kernel development at all levels of detail. Your
+author would like to humbly suggest https://lwn.net/ as a source;
+information on many specific kernel topics can be found via the LWN kernel
+index at:
+
+ https://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/
+
+Beyond that, a valuable resource for kernel developers is:
+
+ https://kernelnewbies.org/
+
+And, of course, one should not forget https://kernel.org/, the definitive
+location for kernel release information.
+
+There are a number of books on kernel development:
+
+ Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition (Jonathan Corbet, Alessandro
+ Rubini, and Greg Kroah-Hartman). Online at
+ https://lwn.net/Kernel/LDD3/.
+
+ Linux Kernel Development (Robert Love).
+
+ Understanding the Linux Kernel (Daniel Bovet and Marco Cesati).
+
+All of these books suffer from a common fault, though: they tend to be
+somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the shelves, and they have been on
+the shelves for a while now. Still, there is quite a bit of good
+information to be found there.
+
+Documentation for git can be found at:
+
+ https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/
+
+ https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html
+
+
+Conclusion
+==========
+
+Congratulations to anybody who has made it through this long-winded
+document. Hopefully it has provided a helpful understanding of how the
+Linux kernel is developed and how you can participate in that process.
+
+In the end, it's the participation that matters. Any open source software
+project is no more than the sum of what its contributors put into it. The
+Linux kernel has progressed as quickly and as well as it has because it has
+been helped by an impressively large group of developers, all of whom are
+working to make it better. The kernel is a premier example of what can be
+done when thousands of people work together toward a common goal.
+
+The kernel can always benefit from a larger developer base, though. There
+is always more work to do. But, just as importantly, most other
+participants in the Linux ecosystem can benefit through contributing to the
+kernel. Getting code into the mainline is the key to higher code quality,
+lower maintenance and distribution costs, a higher level of influence over
+the direction of kernel development, and more. It is a situation where
+everybody involved wins. Fire up your editor and come join us; you will be
+more than welcome.