Bug 2502471 (CVE-2026-63949)

Summary: CVE-2026-63949 kernel: auxdisplay: line-display: fix OOB read on zero-length message_store()
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Version: unspecifiedCC: rhel-process-autobot, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's auxdisplay line-display subsystem. A local user can trigger an out-of-bounds read by writing a zero-length message to the message sysfs attribute. This occurs because the linedisp_display() function attempts to read a character from a zero-length buffer, leading to an out-of-bounds memory access. On kernels with Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN) enabled, this can cause a system panic, resulting in a denial of service. This vulnerability affects various auxdisplay drivers, including ht16k33, max6959, img-ascii-lcd, and seg-led-gpio.
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-19 16:09:55 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

auxdisplay: line-display: fix OOB read on zero-length message_store()

linedisp_display() unconditionally reads msg[count - 1] before
checking whether count is zero, so a write of zero bytes to the
message sysfs attribute hits msg[-1]:

	write(fd, "", 0);

	-> message_store(..., buf, count=0)
	   -> linedisp_display(linedisp, buf, count=0)
	      -> msg[count - 1] == '\n'  ; OOB read

The kernfs write buffer for that store is a 1-byte allocation
(kernfs_fop_write_iter() does kmalloc(len + 1) with len == 0),
so msg[-1] is a 1-byte read before the slab object. On a
KASAN-enabled kernel this trips an out-of-bounds report and
panics; on stock kernels it silently reads adjacent slab data
and, if that byte happens to be '\n', the following count--
wraps ssize_t 0 to -1 and is then passed to kmemdup_nul().

linedisp_display() is reached from the message_store() sysfs
callback (drivers/auxdisplay/line-display.c message attribute,
mode 0644) and from the in-tree initial-message setup with
count == -1, so the OOB path is only userspace-triggerable via
zero-byte writes; vfs_write() does not short-circuit on
count == 0 and kernfs_fop_write_iter() dispatches the store
callback regardless.

Guard the trailing-newline trim with a count check. The
existing if (!count) block then takes the clear-display path
unchanged.

Affects every auxdisplay driver that registers via
linedisp_register() / linedisp_attach(): ht16k33, max6959,
img-ascii-lcd, seg-led-gpio.

Comment 1 Mauro Matteo Cascella 2026-07-21 10:42:46 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2026071954-CVE-2026-63949-7f56@gregkh/T