boot/stub: honor PE SectionAlignment when loading inner kernel

The stub copies the embedded kernel PE into an xmalloc_pages()
allocation with AllocateAnyPages, which only guarantees EFI_PAGE_SIZE
(4 KiB) alignment.

The arm64 kernel declares SectionAlignment = SZ_64K. When _text is not
64K-aligned the kernel's EFI stub reallocates and copies the image,
which can fail with EFI_OUT_OF_RESOURCES on memory-constrained firmware
(e.g. U-Boot, bounded by CONFIG_SYS_MALLOC_LEN rather than full DRAM).
The failure is non-deterministic since AllocateAnyPages returns whatever
page the allocator finds first.

Plumb SectionAlignment through pe_kernel_info() and allocate via
xmalloc_aligned_pages(). For alignment <= EFI_PAGE_SIZE (e.g. x86_64) it
reduces to a plain AllocatePages(), so the change is free there.

SectionAlignment comes from the PE header, which the spec requires to be
a power of 2. Sanitize it in pe_kernel_info() right where it is parsed:
a non-conforming value falls back to plain page alignment (matching the
behavior of older systemd-stub versions that ignored the field) rather
than propagate something that would break xmalloc_aligned_pages()'s
over-alignment maths, with a log_warning() so the fallback stays
diagnosable.

Co-developed-by: Claude <claude@anthropic.com>

Closes: #42443
Reported-By: Agathe Porte <agathe.porte@oss.qualcomm.com>
Tested-By: Agathe Porte <agathe.porte@oss.qualcomm.com>
This commit is contained in:
Josh Hoffer
2026-06-19 22:16:28 +02:00
committed by Lennart Poettering
parent 347f35cf42
commit e641f37499
4 changed files with 41 additions and 8 deletions
+2 -1
View File
@@ -3101,7 +3101,8 @@ static EFI_STATUS call_image_start(
uint32_t compat_address;
err = pe_kernel_info(loaded_image->ImageBase, /* ret_entry_point= */ NULL, &compat_address,
/* ret_size_in_memory= */ NULL);
/* ret_size_in_memory= */ NULL,
/* ret_section_alignment= */ NULL);
if (err != EFI_SUCCESS) {
if (err != EFI_UNSUPPORTED)
return log_error_status(err, "Error finding kernel compat entry address: %m");
+13 -5
View File
@@ -160,14 +160,14 @@ EFI_STATUS linux_exec(
const struct iovec *initrd) {
size_t kernel_size_in_memory = 0;
uint32_t compat_entry_point, entry_point;
uint32_t compat_entry_point, entry_point, section_alignment;
EFI_STATUS err;
assert(parent_image);
assert(iovec_is_set(kernel));
assert(iovec_is_valid(initrd));
err = pe_kernel_info(kernel->iov_base, &entry_point, &compat_entry_point, &kernel_size_in_memory);
err = pe_kernel_info(kernel->iov_base, &entry_point, &compat_entry_point, &kernel_size_in_memory, &section_alignment);
#if defined(__i386__) || defined(__x86_64__)
if (err == EFI_UNSUPPORTED)
/* Kernel is too old to support LINUX_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID, try the deprecated EFI handover
@@ -264,9 +264,17 @@ EFI_STATUS linux_exec(
if (err != EFI_SUCCESS)
return log_error_status(err, "Cannot read sections: %m");
/* Do we need to ensure under 4gb address on x86? */
_cleanup_pages_ Pages loaded_kernel_pages = xmalloc_pages(
AllocateAnyPages, EfiLoaderCode, EFI_SIZE_TO_PAGES(kernel_size_in_memory), 0);
/* Honor the PE SectionAlignment (SZ_64K on arm64): if _text is not aligned the kernel's EFI stub
* reallocates and copies the image, which can fail with EFI_OUT_OF_RESOURCES on memory-constrained
* firmware. When alignment <= EFI_PAGE_SIZE (e.g. x86_64) xmalloc_aligned_pages() reduces to a
* plain AllocatePages() with no extra over-allocation. pe_kernel_info() already sanitized a
* non-conforming SectionAlignment to plain page alignment. */
_cleanup_pages_ Pages loaded_kernel_pages = xmalloc_aligned_pages(
AllocateAnyPages,
EfiLoaderCode,
EFI_SIZE_TO_PAGES(kernel_size_in_memory),
section_alignment,
/* addr= */ 0);
uint8_t* loaded_kernel = PHYSICAL_ADDRESS_TO_POINTER(loaded_kernel_pages.addr);
FOREACH_ARRAY(h, headers, n_headers) {
+20 -1
View File
@@ -460,7 +460,12 @@ static uint32_t get_compatibility_entry_address(const DosFileHeader *dos, const
return 0;
}
EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(const void *base, uint32_t *ret_entry_point, uint32_t *ret_compat_entry_point, size_t *ret_size_in_memory) {
EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(
const void *base,
uint32_t *ret_entry_point,
uint32_t *ret_compat_entry_point,
size_t *ret_size_in_memory,
uint32_t *ret_section_alignment) {
assert(base);
const DosFileHeader *dos = (const DosFileHeader *) base;
@@ -475,6 +480,16 @@ EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(const void *base, uint32_t *ret_entry_point, uint32_t
* of the SizeOfImage field in the PE header and return it */
size_t size_in_memory = pe->OptionalHeader.SizeOfImage;
/* Honoring SectionAlignment lets callers place the image so the kernel's EFI stub need not relocate
* it (SZ_64K on arm64). The PE spec requires a power of 2; for a non-conforming value fall back to
* plain page alignment (what we assumed before honoring this field) rather than propagate something
* that would break the allocator's over-alignment math. */
uint32_t section_alignment = pe->OptionalHeader.SectionAlignment;
if (!ISPOWEROF2(section_alignment)) {
log_warning("PE SectionAlignment %" PRIu32 " is not a power of 2, falling back to page alignment.", section_alignment);
section_alignment = EFI_PAGE_SIZE;
}
/* Support for LINUX_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID was added in kernel stub 1.0. */
if (pe->OptionalHeader.MajorImageVersion < 1)
return EFI_UNSUPPORTED;
@@ -486,6 +501,8 @@ EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(const void *base, uint32_t *ret_entry_point, uint32_t
*ret_compat_entry_point = 0;
if (ret_size_in_memory)
*ret_size_in_memory = size_in_memory;
if (ret_section_alignment)
*ret_section_alignment = section_alignment;
return EFI_SUCCESS;
}
@@ -500,6 +517,8 @@ EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(const void *base, uint32_t *ret_entry_point, uint32_t
*ret_compat_entry_point = compat_entry_point;
if (ret_size_in_memory)
*ret_size_in_memory = size_in_memory;
if (ret_section_alignment)
*ret_section_alignment = section_alignment;
return EFI_SUCCESS;
}
+6 -1
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@@ -57,7 +57,12 @@ EFI_STATUS pe_memory_locate_sections(
const char *const section_names[],
PeSectionVector sections[]);
EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(const void *base, uint32_t *ret_entry_point, uint32_t *ret_compat_entry_point, size_t *ret_size_in_memory);
EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_info(
const void *base,
uint32_t *ret_entry_point,
uint32_t *ret_compat_entry_point,
size_t *ret_size_in_memory,
uint32_t *ret_section_alignment);
EFI_STATUS pe_kernel_check_no_relocation(const void *base);