[coreboot-gerrit] Patch merged into coreboot/master: 2c88cc0 Intel microcode: Return when `microcode_updates` is `NULL`

[gerrit at coreboot.org]

the following patch was just integrated into master:
commit 2c88cc0696be2b01ebd4df6f7593d8658c8fe419
Author: Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder at gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Mar 30 12:04:23 2013 +0100

    Intel microcode: Return when `microcode_updates` is `NULL`
    
    Add a safety check in function `intel_update_microcode` to return when
    accidentally `NULL` is passed as `microcode_updates`, which would lead
    to a null pointer dereference later on.
    
        for (c = microcode_updates; m->hdrver; m = (const struct microcode *)c) {
    
    While at it, use `return NULL` for clarity in function
    `intel_microcode_find` and include the header file `stddef.h`. for it.
    
    The review of this patch had some more discussion on adding more
    comments and more detailed error messages. But this should be done in
    a separate patch.
    
    For clarity here some history, on how this was found and what caused
    the discussion and confusion.
    
    Originally when Vladimir made this improvement, selecting
    `CPU_MICROCODE_IN_CBFS` in Kconfig but not having the microcode blob
    `cpu_microcode_blob.bin` in CBFS resulted in a null pointer dereference
    later on causing a crash.
    
        for (c = microcode_updates; m->hdrver; m = (const struct microcode *)c) {
    
    Vladimir fixed this by returning if `microcode_updates` is `NULL`,
    that means no file is found and successfully tested this on his
    Lenovo X201.
    
    When pushing the patch to Gerrit for review, the code was rewritten
    though by Aaron in commit »intel microcode: split up microcode loading
    stages« (98ffb426) [1], which also returns when no file is found. So
    the other parts of the code were checked and the safety check as
    described above is added.
    
    [1] http://review.coreboot.org/2778
    
    Change-Id: I6e18fd37256910bf047061e4633a66cf29ad7b69
    Signed-off-by: Vladimir Serbinenko <phcoder at gmail.com>
    Signed-off-by: Paul Menzel <paulepanter at users.sourceforge.net>
    Reviewed-on: http://review.coreboot.org/2990
    Reviewed-by: Aaron Durbin <adurbin at google.com>
    Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins)

Build-Tested: build bot (Jenkins) at Mon Apr 22 15:45:37 2013, giving +1
See http://review.coreboot.org/2990 for details.

-gerrit