From: Steven Rostedt <steven@rostedt.org>
To: LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
Linux Trace Kernel <linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>,
Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
Subject: [PATCH] eventfs: Use children field for rcu head and add memory barriers
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2026 17:04:08 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260807170408.2d324df5@gandalf.local.home> (raw)
From: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
When an eventfs inode is freed, it sets ei->is_freed and then uses its
ei->list to add it to the srcu link list as the list field is a union with
the rcu list head. As the ei->list is used to iterate over an SRCU
protected list without taking the eventfs_mutex, there's nothing stopping
the iteration over that list to see the ei->rcu instead of the ei->list
and it will read a corrupt target.
To fix this, change the union of the rcu list head with the children list.
On freeing the eventfs inode, set the is_free and execute a smp_wmb()
before adding the eventfs inode to the SRCU list.
On iteration of the ei->children list, at the start, execute a smp_rmb()
and then read the is_freed of the ei to see if the children list is still
valid. If is_freed is set, then the ei_child read is not valid and the
loop should exit immediately.
Reported-by: Sashiko <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Closes: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260806022719.375354-1-shuangpeng.kernel%40gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
---
fs/tracefs/event_inode.c | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
fs/tracefs/internal.h | 4 ++--
2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
index 39c7a34531e8..677c39b0d62f 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
+++ b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
@@ -124,6 +124,16 @@ static inline void put_ei(struct eventfs_inode *ei)
static inline void free_ei(struct eventfs_inode *ei)
{
if (ei) {
+ WARN_ON_ONCE(!list_empty(&ei->children));
+ /*
+ * The ei should have no children if it is being freed.
+ * The SRCU iteration has a smp_rmb() to make sure it
+ * sees a child (that may have already been freed)
+ * before it reads is_free. If is_free is set, it must
+ * not use the child it acquired from ei->children, as
+ * the list may be used for SRCU.
+ */
+ smp_wmb();
ei->is_freed = 1;
put_ei(ei);
}
@@ -627,6 +637,20 @@ static int eventfs_iterate(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx)
list_for_each_entry_srcu(ei_child, &ei->children, list,
srcu_read_lock_held(&eventfs_srcu)) {
+ /*
+ * If the ei is being freed, then the ei->children may be
+ * being used as the rcu list, which means the next element
+ * may be garbage. The ei->is_free is set before switching
+ * the ei->children over to ei->rcu. The read memory barrier
+ * here makes sure the ei_child is read before is_free is
+ * updated.
+ *
+ * Matches the smp_wmb() in put_ei()
+ */
+ smp_rmb();
+ if (ei->is_freed)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
if (c > 0) {
c--;
continue;
diff --git a/fs/tracefs/internal.h b/fs/tracefs/internal.h
index a4a7f8431aff..c61481d04c8e 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/internal.h
+++ b/fs/tracefs/internal.h
@@ -46,11 +46,11 @@ struct eventfs_attr {
* @ino: The saved inode number
*/
struct eventfs_inode {
+ struct list_head list;
union {
- struct list_head list;
+ struct list_head children;
struct rcu_head rcu;
};
- struct list_head children;
const struct eventfs_entry *entries;
const char *name;
struct eventfs_attr *entry_attrs;
--
2.53.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-08-07 21:04 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-07 21:04 Steven Rostedt [this message]
2026-08-07 22:15 ` [PATCH] eventfs: Use children field for rcu head and add memory barriers Masami Hiramatsu
2026-08-08 0:00 ` Steven Rostedt
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2026-08-08 13:42 Steven Rostedt
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