In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

powerpc/time: Remove redundant preempt_disable|enable() calls from arch_irq_work_raise()

A kernel panic is observed when handling machine check exceptions from
real mode.

  BUG: Unable to handle kernel data access on read at 0xc00000006be21300
  Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 11 [#1]
  MSR:  8000000000001003 <SF,ME,RI,LE>  CR: 88222248  XER: 00000005
  CFAR: c00000000003ffc4 DAR: c00000006be21300 DSISR: 40000000 IRQMASK: 0
  NIP [c000000000029e40] arch_irq_work_raise+0x10/0x70
  LR [c00000000003ffc8] machine_check_queue_event+0xa8/0x150
  Call Trace:
  [c0000000179d3c70] [c00000000003ff64] machine_check_queue_event+0x44/0x150
  [c0000000179d3d30] [c0000000000084e0] machine_check_early_common+0x1f0/0x2c0

The crash occurs because arch_irq_work_raise() calls preempt_disable()
from machine check exception (MCE) handlers running in real mode. In
this context, accessing the preempt_count can fault, leading to the panic.

The preempt_disable()/preempt_enable() pair in arch_irq_work_raise()
was originally added by commit 0fe1ac48bef0 ("powerpc/perf_event: Fix
oops due to perf_event_do_pending call") to avoid races while raising
irq work from exception context.

Later, commit 471ba0e686cb ("irq_work: Do not raise an IPI when
queueing work on the local CPU") added preemption protection in
irq_work_queue() path, while commit 20b876918c06 ("irq_work: Use per
cpu atomics instead of regular atomics") added equivalent
protection in irq_work_queue_on() before reaching arch_irq_work_raise():

  irq_work_queue() / irq_work_queue_on()
    -> preempt_disable()
      -> __irq_work_queue_local()
        -> irq_work_raise()
          -> arch_irq_work_raise()

As a result, callers other than mce_irq_work_raise() already execute
with preemption disabled, making the additional
preempt_disable()/preempt_enable() pair in arch_irq_work_raise()
redundant.

The arch_irq_work_raise() function executes in NMI context when called
from MCE handler. Hence we will not be preempted or scheduled out since
we are in NMI context with MSR[EE]=0. Therefore, it is safe to remove
the preempt_disable()/preempt_enable() calls from here.

Remove it to avoid accessing preempt_count from real mode context.

[Maddy: Fixed the commit title]