Bug 2536519 (CVE-2026-90339) - CVE-2026-90339 kernel: powerpc/syscall: Fix syscall skip handling for seccomp and ptrace
Summary: CVE-2026-90339 kernel: powerpc/syscall: Fix syscall skip handling for seccomp...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2026-90339
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-09-17 18:16 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2026-10-13 14:28 UTC (History)
17 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-09-17 18:16:52 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

powerpc/syscall: Fix syscall skip handling for seccomp and ptrace

After enabling GENERIC_ENTRY on PowerPC, syscall_enter_from_user_mode()
returns -1 as a sentinel to signal that seccomp or ptrace has intercepted
the syscall and already set a return value via syscall_set_return_value().
system_call_exception() was not handling this sentinel, and since -1UL
is >= NR_syscalls, the code fell into the out-of-range path and returned
-ENOSYS, overwriting the errno already placed in regs->gpr[3].

The naive fix of checking r0 == -1L before the NR_syscalls bounds check
is ambiguous: a user legitimately calling syscall(-1) also produces r0 ==
-1L, and a tracer intercepting such a call would have its injected return
value silently discarded.

Fix this by introducing a thread flag that is set whenever
syscall_set_return_value() explicitly updates the return value. In
system_call_exception(), check and clear this flag before dispatching
the syscall, and return the preset value directly when it is present.
This ensures that an explicitly supplied return value always suppresses
syscall execution, regardless of the syscall number.

This handles all seccomp actions correctly:

  - SECCOMP_RET_ERRNO, SECCOMP_RET_TRACE (no tracer), SECCOMP_RET_USER_NOTIF:
    all call syscall_set_return_value(), flag is set, injected value returned.
  - SECCOMP_RET_TRAP, SECCOMP_RET_KILL: call syscall_rollback() and deliver
    a signal; flag is not set, but the process is dying so the return value
    is irrelevant.

The fix covers both ppc32 and ppc64 with no #ifdefs.


Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.