7.8high

CVE-2026-74635

fbdev: bitblit: bound-check glyph index in bit_cursor()

Published 2 mo ago · modified 21 d ago · JSON

CVSS
7.8
v3.1 · CNA
CISA KEV
No
not known exploited
EPSS
0.1%
percentile 3%
Public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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

fbdev: bitblit: bound-check glyph index in bit_cursor()

bit_cursor() fetches the glyph under the cursor with

c = scr_readw(vc_pos); src = vc_font.data + ((c & charmask) * w * height);

where charmask is 0x1ff when vc_hi_font_mask is set. The screen buffer value comes directly from scr_readw() and may be larger than the current font's glyph count.

Syzkaller triggers this via vcs_write(). The Call Trace shows vcs_write() in vc_screen.c writing an arbitrary 16-bit value with writev() to /dev/vcsa, which vcs_write_buf() in vc_screen.c stores via vcs_scr_writew() without checking charcount. The stored value is later read in bit_cursor() in bitblit.c.

When the font is changed from a font with 512 glyphs to a font with 256 glyphs, the screen buffer can retain characters with the high bit set from the previous mode, which could also produce the same out-of-bounds access.

BUG: KASAN: global-out-of-bounds in soft_cursor+0x378/0x6bc drivers/video/fbdev/core/softcursor.c:70 Read of size 16 at addr ffff800086c57970

Call Trace: soft_cursor+0x378/0x6bc drivers/video/fbdev/core/softcursor.c:70 bit_cursor+0xa90/0x1108 drivers/video/fbdev/core/bitblit.c:365 fbcon_cursor+0x344/0x498 drivers/video/fbdev/core/fbcon.c:1427 hide_cursor+0xdc/0x2d0 drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:883 update_region+0x100/0x18c drivers/tty/vt/vt.c:669 vcs_write+0x8ec/0xaf0 drivers/tty/vt/vc_screen.c:685

bit_putcs_aligned() and bit_putcs_unaligned() already clamp the glyph index to vc_font.charcount. Apply the same clamp in bit_cursor() after extracting the attribute and masking, before indexing fontdata.

The fix completes the bounds checking started in commit 18c4ef4e765a ("fbdev: bitblit: bound-check glyph index in bit_putcs*"), which missed the cursor path.

This change should be safe because the clamp reuses the existing contract from fbcon: charcount is maintained under console_lock in con_font_set() and fbcon_font_set(), and hi_font_mask is cleared when switching from 512 to 256 glyphs. When stale screen data with high bits remains after a font switch, or when vcs_write() stores an arbitrary value, clamping the index to 0 prevents the out-of-bounds read without changing cursor semantics — the same fallback bit_putcs uses.

CISA SSVC assessment

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
21 d ago

Exploit prediction (EPSS)

0.13% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs.

CVSS scores

Assigned byVersionScoreVector
CNA3.17.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA3.17.8CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Linux Linux

Classification

Technology feeds
Linux kernel (RSS, critical only)

References

Sources

vulnwire keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA; records that alias each other are merged. Machine-readable: JSON.