Memory Access Vulnerability in Linux Kernel Affecting ARM64 Configuration

CVE-2023-53742

What is CVE-2023-53742?

A memory access vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel impacting ARM64 configurations. The issue arises from the promotion of the READ_ONCE() operation to a full atomic acquire instruction on certain ARM64 settings. This behavior can lead to errors when processing unaligned addresses, causing potential kernel paging requests and internal errors within the system. The fix entails avoiding the use of READ_ONCE() within the read_instrumented_memory function and ensuring that access is handled correctly through appropriate type casting. Although this adjustment may affect atomicity assurances, the expectation remains that standard loads across most architectures will maintain their atomic properties.

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