Code: static struct rmap_item *scan_get_next_rmap_item(struct page **page)
{
	struct mm_struct *mm;
	struct mm_slot *slot;
	struct vm_area_struct *vma;
	struct rmap_item *rmap_item;

	if (list_empty(&ksm_mm_head.mm_list))
		return NULL;

	slot = ksm_scan.mm_slot;
	if (slot == &ksm_mm_head) {
		/*
		 * A number of pages can hang around indefinitely on per-cpu
		 * pagevecs, raised page count preventing write_protect_page
		 * from merging them.  Though it doesn't really matter much,
		 * it is puzzling to see some stuck in pages_volatile until
		 * other activity jostles them out, and they also prevented
		 * LTP's KSM test from succeeding deterministically; so drain
		 * them here (here rather than on entry to ksm_do_scan(),
		 * so we don't IPI too often when pages_to_scan is set low).
		 */
		lru_add_drain_all();

		root_unstable_tree = RB_ROOT;

		spin_lock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);
 		slot = list_entry(slot->mm_list.next, struct mm_slot, mm_list);
 		ksm_scan.mm_slot = slot;
 		spin_unlock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);
 next_mm:
 		ksm_scan.address = 0;
 		ksm_scan.rmap_list = &slot->rmap_list;
	}

	mm = slot->mm;
	down_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
	if (ksm_test_exit(mm))
		vma = NULL;
	else
		vma = find_vma(mm, ksm_scan.address);

	for (; vma; vma = vma->vm_next) {
		if (!(vma->vm_flags & VM_MERGEABLE))
			continue;
		if (ksm_scan.address < vma->vm_start)
			ksm_scan.address = vma->vm_start;
		if (!vma->anon_vma)
			ksm_scan.address = vma->vm_end;

		while (ksm_scan.address < vma->vm_end) {
			if (ksm_test_exit(mm))
				break;
			*page = follow_page(vma, ksm_scan.address, FOLL_GET);
			if (IS_ERR_OR_NULL(*page)) {
				ksm_scan.address += PAGE_SIZE;
				cond_resched();
				continue;
			}
			if (PageAnon(*page) ||
			    page_trans_compound_anon(*page)) {
				flush_anon_page(vma, *page, ksm_scan.address);
				flush_dcache_page(*page);
				rmap_item = get_next_rmap_item(slot,
					ksm_scan.rmap_list, ksm_scan.address);
				if (rmap_item) {
					ksm_scan.rmap_list =
							&rmap_item->rmap_list;
					ksm_scan.address += PAGE_SIZE;
				} else
					put_page(*page);
				up_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
				return rmap_item;
			}
			put_page(*page);
			ksm_scan.address += PAGE_SIZE;
			cond_resched();
		}
	}

	if (ksm_test_exit(mm)) {
		ksm_scan.address = 0;
		ksm_scan.rmap_list = &slot->rmap_list;
	}
	/*
	 * Nuke all the rmap_items that are above this current rmap:
	 * because there were no VM_MERGEABLE vmas with such addresses.
	 */
	remove_trailing_rmap_items(slot, ksm_scan.rmap_list);

	spin_lock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);
	ksm_scan.mm_slot = list_entry(slot->mm_list.next,
						struct mm_slot, mm_list);
	if (ksm_scan.address == 0) {
		/*
		 * We've completed a full scan of all vmas, holding mmap_sem
		 * throughout, and found no VM_MERGEABLE: so do the same as
		 * __ksm_exit does to remove this mm from all our lists now.
		 * This applies either when cleaning up after __ksm_exit
		 * (but beware: we can reach here even before __ksm_exit),
		 * or when all VM_MERGEABLE areas have been unmapped (and
		 * mmap_sem then protects against race with MADV_MERGEABLE).
		 */
		hlist_del(&slot->link);
		list_del(&slot->mm_list);
		spin_unlock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);

		free_mm_slot(slot);
		clear_bit(MMF_VM_MERGEABLE, &mm->flags);
		up_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
		mmdrop(mm);
	} else {
		spin_unlock(&ksm_mmlist_lock);
		up_read(&mm->mmap_sem);
	}

	/* Repeat until we've completed scanning the whole list */
	slot = ksm_scan.mm_slot;
	if (slot != &ksm_mm_head)
		goto next_mm;

	ksm_scan.seqnr++;
	return NULL;
}

Vulnerability Type: DoS 
CWE ID: CWE-362
Summary: Race condition in the scan_get_next_rmap_item function in mm/ksm.c in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39.3, when Kernel SamePage Merging (KSM) is enabled, allows local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a crafted application.
Commit Message: ksm: fix NULL pointer dereference in scan_get_next_rmap_item()

Andrea Righi reported a case where an exiting task can race against
ksmd::scan_get_next_rmap_item (http://lkml.org/lkml/2011/6/1/742) easily
triggering a NULL pointer dereference in ksmd.

ksm_scan.mm_slot == &ksm_mm_head with only one registered mm

CPU 1 (__ksm_exit)		CPU 2 (scan_get_next_rmap_item)
 				list_empty() is false
lock				slot == &ksm_mm_head
list_del(slot->mm_list)
(list now empty)
unlock
				lock
				slot = list_entry(slot->mm_list.next)
				(list is empty, so slot is still ksm_mm_head)
				unlock
				slot->mm == NULL ... Oops

Close this race by revalidating that the new slot is not simply the list
head again.

Andrea's test case:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>

#define BUFSIZE getpagesize()

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
	void *ptr;

	if (posix_memalign(&ptr, getpagesize(), BUFSIZE) < 0) {
		perror("posix_memalign");
		exit(1);
	}
	if (madvise(ptr, BUFSIZE, MADV_MERGEABLE) < 0) {
		perror("madvise");
		exit(1);
	}
	*(char *)NULL = 0;

	return 0;
}

Reported-by: Andrea Righi <andrea@betterlinux.com>
Tested-by: Andrea Righi <andrea@betterlinux.com>
Cc: Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Hugh Dickins <hughd@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Chris Wright <chrisw@sous-sol.org>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>