[PATCH] efi_loader: check efi_deserialize_load_option() in get_dp_device()

Hem Parekh hemparekh1596 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 17 07:31:14 CEST 2026


From: Hem Parekh <your.real at email.com>

get_dp_device() reads a Boot#### variable and passes its contents to
efi_deserialize_load_option() but ignores the return value. On failure
efi_deserialize_load_option() may return without having initialised the
caller's struct efi_load_option, and even on a malformed device path it
sets lo.file_path before validating it with efi_dp_check_length().

As a result get_dp_device() can proceed to walk lo.file_path with
efi_dp_split_file_path() (via efi_dp_dup()/efi_dp_size()) on a device
path that was never validated, or on an uninitialised pointer when the
variable is too short to be parsed. A device-path node with a length of
zero makes the walk loop forever, and a length below the 4-byte node
header leads to an out-of-bounds read. The Boot#### variable is
attacker-controlled in threat models where writing EFI variables does
not imply the ability to execute firmware code, so this is reachable
during capsule-on-disk processing at boot.

Check the return value and bail out, as every other caller of
efi_deserialize_load_option() already does.

Signed-off-by: Hem Parekh <your.real at email.com>
---
 lib/efi_loader/efi_capsule.c | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/lib/efi_loader/efi_capsule.c b/lib/efi_loader/efi_capsule.c
index 52887f7c..01c86bc4 100644
--- a/lib/efi_loader/efi_capsule.c
+++ b/lib/efi_loader/efi_capsule.c
@@ -860,7 +860,12 @@ static efi_status_t get_dp_device(u16 *boot_var,
 	if (!buf)
 		return EFI_NOT_FOUND;
 
-	efi_deserialize_load_option(&lo, buf, &size);
+	ret = efi_deserialize_load_option(&lo, buf, &size);
+	if (ret != EFI_SUCCESS) {
+		log_err("Invalid load option for %ls\n", boot_var);
+		free(buf);
+		return ret;
+	}
 
 	if (lo.attributes & LOAD_OPTION_ACTIVE) {
 		efi_dp_split_file_path(lo.file_path, device_dp, &file_dp);
-- 
2.43.0



More information about the U-Boot mailing list