Re: [PATCH bpf] bpf: Keep progs alive until the trampoline image calling them is freed

[Leon Hwang <leon.hwang@linux.dev>]

On 2026/8/19 20:22, Florent Revest (Anthropic) wrote:
> bpf_tramp_image_put() makes sure a trampoline image is not freed while
> a task may still be running in it (call_rcu_tasks() + im->pcref), but
> nothing similar is done for the progs called by that image. Since
> commit e21aa341785c ("bpf: Fix fexit trampoline."), detach patches the
> return path so that a task still in the original function skips the
> fexit progs when it comes back, and counts on the prog's own RCU flavor
> to cover a task that is inside a prog. On that basis the last prog
> reference is dropped right away and the prog is freed after a single
> RCU / RCU tasks trace grace period.
> 
> That leaves out a task in the trampoline glue itself: between two
> progs, or already past the patched jump but not yet in the first fexit
> prog's enter helper. On !PREEMPT kernels this is a few instructions
> that cannot be preempted, so it did not matter. With CONFIG_PREEMPTION
> a task can sit there, in no RCU read section of any flavor and holding
> only im->pcref, for longer than it takes to free the prog it is about
> to call:
> 
>   CPU 0                               CPU 1
>   in image I, orig_call() returned
>   [preempted before lsm.s prog A]
>                                       bpf_tracing_link_release()
>                                        -> bpf_tramp_image_put(I)
>                                       bpf_link_dealloc()
>                                        bpf_prog_put(A), last ref
>                                       tasks trace GP, A's text freed
>   __bpf_prog_enter_sleepable(A)
>   call A->bpf_func
> 
> On x86 this is an int3 in poisoned bpf_prog_pack memory:
> 
>   Oops: int3: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
>   CPU: 18 UID: 0 PID: 94573 Comm: x169 Not tainted 6.18.44 #1 PREEMPT(lazy)
>   RIP: 0010:0xffffffffc0601d8d
>   Call Trace:
>    <TASK>
>    ? bpf_trampoline_6442515411+0x1a4/0x21b
>    bpf_lsm_bprm_committed_creds+0x5/0x10
>    security_bprm_committed_creds+0x5f/0x70
>    begin_new_exec+0x2d6/0x410
>    ...
> 
> We hit this in production on preemptible kernels when progs attached
> through trampolines got detached while their hooks were busy. Adding
> grace periods before the prog free would not help with sleepable progs:
> neither RCU tasks nor RCU tasks trace waits for a task that slept in a
> prog and then got preempted in the gap after it.
> 
> Fix it by having the image take a reference on every prog it calls, in
> bpf_tramp_image_alloc(), and drop them in bpf_tramp_image_free(). A
> detached prog now stays loaded until the old image is gone, which
> reverts a deliberate choice of commit e21aa341785c ("bpf: Fix fexit
> trampoline."). Detached fexit progs still stop being called right away
> since the return path is patched.
> 
> Fixes: e21aa341785c ("bpf: Fix fexit trampoline.")
> Assisted-by: Claude:unspecified
> Signed-off-by: Florent Revest (Anthropic) <florent.revest@linux.dev>

lgtm,

Acked-by: Leon Hwang <leon.hwang@linux.dev>

> [...]