riscv-software-src / riscv-software-src/opensbi

OpenSBI mpxy: base_attr_id + attr_count can wrap and bypass range checks

Open
#415 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C
Stars
1.5k
Forks
712
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

Title: OpenSBI mpxy: base_attr_id + attr_count can wrap and bypass range checks

Current upstream OpenSBI master (checked in a local clone at 6d5b2b9 on 2026-03-21) still computes attribute end IDs in u32 and then uses the result for range checks:

  • lib/sbi/sbi_mpxy.c: sbi_mpxy_read_attrs() and sbi_mpxy_write_attrs()
  • lib/utils/mpxy/fdt_mpxy_rpmi_mbox.c: mpxy_mbox_read_attributes() and mpxy_mbox_write_attributes()

The core pattern is:

u32 end_id = base_attr_id + attr_count - 1;
if (end_id >= MAX_ID)
    return SBI_EBAD_RANGE;

or equivalent. The problem is that both base_attr_id and attr_count are caller-controlled u32 values. When base_attr_id is close to UINT32_MAX and attr_count is greater than 1, the addition wraps before the range check runs. That can make end_id look small even though the requested range is actually huge. In the mpxy helpers, the code then uses attr_id2index(base_attr_id) and copies attributes from or to the array starting at that wrapped index, so the overflowed range check can lead to out-of-bounds access in the message-protocol attribute array.

The current sanity check only validates that attr_count is non-zero and not larger than the shared-memory size in units of ATTR_SIZE. It does not prevent wraparound in base_attr_id + attr_count - 1, so the bug is still present in current head.

Expected behavior: the range calculation should use overflow-safe arithmetic, or the code should explicitly check base_attr_id > MAX - (attr_count - 1) before adding.

Actual behavior: the u32 addition can wrap and allow a bogus range to pass the bounds check, which then drives out-of-bounds attribute indexing/copying.

This looks like a security-relevant memory-safety bug in the OpenSBI mpxy path.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Read the range handling in lib/sbi/sbi_mpxy.c at sbi_mpxy_read_attrs() and sbi_mpxy_write_attrs(), then compare it with the corresponding helpers in lib/utils/mpxy/fdt_mpxy_rpmi_mbox.c. Exercise caller-controlled base_attr_id and attr_count values near the u32 limit; done means invalid wrapped ranges are rejected before attribute indexing or copying can occur.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
operating-systems, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
55/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.