[PATCH 5.10.y 15/15] timers: Fix NULL function pointer race in timer_shutdown_sync()

Jeongjun Park
2026-02-19T17:14:19Z

From: Yipeng Zou <zouyipeng@huawei.com>

[ Upstream commit 20739af07383e6eb1ec59dcd70b72ebfa9ac362c ]

There is a race condition between timer_shutdown_sync() and timer
expiration that can lead to hitting a WARN_ON in expire_timers().

The issue occurs when timer_shutdown_sync() clears the timer function
to NULL while the timer is still running on another CPU. The race
scenario looks like this:

CPU0 CPU1
<SOFTIRQ>
lock_timer_base()
expire_timers()
base->running_timer = timer;
unlock_timer_base()
[call_timer_fn enter]
mod_timer()
...
timer_shutdown_sync()
lock_timer_base()
// For now, will not detach the timer but only clear its function to NULL
if (base->running_timer != timer)
ret = detach_if_pending(timer, base, true);
if (shutdown)
timer->function = NULL;
unlock_timer_base()
[call_timer_fn exit]
lock_timer_base()
base->running_timer = NULL;
unlock_timer_base()
...
// Now timer is pending while its function set to NULL.
// next timer trigger
<SOFTIRQ>
expire_timers()
WARN_ON_ONCE(!fn) // hit
...
lock_timer_base()
// Now timer will detach
if (base->running_timer != timer)
ret = detach_if_pending(timer, base, true);
if (shutdown)
timer->function = NULL;
unlock_timer_base()

The problem is that timer_shutdown_sync() clears the timer function
regardless of whether the timer is currently running. This can leave a
pending timer with a NULL function pointer, which triggers the
WARN_ON_ONCE(!fn) check in expire_timers().

Fix this by only clearing the timer function when actually detaching the
timer. If the timer is running, leave the function pointer intact, which is
safe because the timer will be properly detached when it finishes running.

Fixes: 0cc04e80458a ("timers: Add shutdown mechanism to the internal functions")
Signed-off-by: Yipeng Zou <zouyipeng@huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251122093942.301559-1-zouyipeng@huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
kernel/time/timer.c | 7 ++++---
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

--- a/kernel/time/timer.c
+++ b/kernel/time/timer.c
@@ -1360,10 +1360,11 @@ static int __try_to_del_timer_sync(struc

base = lock_timer_base(timer, &flags);

- if (base->running_timer != timer)
+ if (base->running_timer != timer) {
ret = detach_if_pending(timer, base, true);
- if (shutdown)
- timer->function = NULL;
+ if (shutdown)
+ timer->function = NULL;
+ }

raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&base->lock, flags);

--