FAILED: patch "[PATCH] perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling" failed to apply to 6.12-stable tree

FAILED: patch "[PATCH] perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling" failed to apply to 6.12-stable tree

[gregkh]

The patch below does not apply to the 6.12-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm
tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit
id to <stable@vger.kernel.org>.

To reproduce the conflict and resubmit, you may use the following commands:

git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-6.12.y
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
git cherry-pick -x 42c5ca1f0a288a52878bd72a5595b08261057438
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<stable@vger.kernel.org>' --in-reply-to '2026081729-cruelty-pouch-23ea@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 6.12.y' 'HEAD^..'

Possible dependencies:



thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From 42c5ca1f0a288a52878bd72a5595b08261057438 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Aditya Chillara <aditya.chillara@oss.qualcomm.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2026 18:11:52 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling
 detach

perf_group_detach() handles leader and sibling detach differently. When the
group leader is detached, all siblings are promoted to singleton events and
their group_leader pointer is reset to themselves. When a sibling is
detached, it is removed from the leader's sibling_list, but its
group_leader pointer is left pointing at the old leader.

That is harmless when the sibling is being closed and freed immediately, as
in the DETACH_DEAD path. It is not safe when the sibling is detached but
kept alive, such as during CPU hotplug with DETACH_GROUP. In that case the
sibling is removed from the context, while its file descriptor can still
keep it alive.

A typical failing sequence is:

  - A group contains leader L and sibling S.
  - CPU hot-unplug detaches S with DETACH_GROUP, removing it from
    L->sibling_list but leaving S->group_leader == L.
  - L is later closed and freed.
  - A PERF_IOC_FLAG_GROUP ioctl on S follows S->group_leader and
    dereferences the freed leader.

This was reproduced by running the perf event fuzzer, CPU hotplug, and a
stress workload concurrently:

  Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 006b6b6b6b6b6cdb
  CPU: 2 PID: 12489 Comm: perf_fuzzer 6.18.7 PREEMPT
  pc : perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68
  x20: ffffff89a3fa2c70 x8 : 6b6b6b6b6b6b6b6b
  Code: 943c4a0e 340047a0 f9404a94 f9411e88 (f940b908)
  Call trace:
  perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68 (P)
  __arm64_sys_ioctl+0xa0/0xf4
  invoke_syscall+0x58/0xe4
  el0_svc_common+0xa8/0xdc
  do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28
  el0_svc+0x40/0xc0
  el0t_64_sync_handler+0x68/0xdc
  el0t_64_sync+0x1c4/0x1c8

The fault happened in perf_ioctl(), where perf_event_for_each() follows
the stale group_leader pointer and perf_event_for_each_child() then
dereferences the freed leader's context.

Fix the use-after-free by promoting the detached sibling to a singleton.
Also fix __event_disable() cgroup accounting and event state change.

Fixes: 8a49542c0554 ("perf_events: Fix races in group composition")
Assisted-by: PatchWise:gpt-5.5
Signed-off-by: Aditya Chillara <aditya.chillara@oss.qualcomm.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260807-fix-group-leader-uaf-v3-1-b0c2310c9a0d@oss.qualcomm.com

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index bd25e1998faf..1a73ba0747df 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -2343,6 +2343,34 @@ static inline struct list_head *get_event_list(struct perf_event *event)
 				    &event->pmu_ctx->flexible_active;
 }
 
+/* @sibling must already be unlinked from its old leader's sibling_list. */
+static void perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(struct perf_event *sibling,
+					   struct perf_event_context *ctx,
+					   int group_caps)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Events that have PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING require being part of
+	 * a group and cannot exist on their own, schedule them out
+	 * and move them into the ERROR state. Also see
+	 * _perf_event_enable(), it will not be able to recover this
+	 * ERROR state.
+	 */
+	if (sibling->event_caps & PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING)
+		__event_disable(sibling, ctx, PERF_EVENT_STATE_ERROR);
+
+	sibling->group_leader = sibling;
+	sibling->group_caps = group_caps;
+
+	if (sibling->attach_state & PERF_ATTACH_CONTEXT) {
+		add_event_to_groups(sibling, ctx);
+
+		if (sibling->state == PERF_EVENT_STATE_ACTIVE)
+			list_add_tail(&sibling->active_list, get_event_list(sibling));
+	}
+
+	perf_event__header_size(sibling);
+}
+
 static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 {
 	struct perf_event *leader = event->group_leader;
@@ -2366,8 +2394,9 @@ static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 	 */
 	if (leader != event) {
 		list_del_init(&event->sibling_list);
-		event->group_leader->nr_siblings--;
-		event->group_leader->group_generation++;
+		leader->nr_siblings--;
+		leader->group_generation++;
+		perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(event, ctx, event->event_caps);
 		goto out;
 	}
 
@@ -2377,32 +2406,14 @@ static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 	 * to whatever list we are on.
 	 */
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(sibling, tmp, &event->sibling_list, sibling_list) {
-
-		/*
-		 * Events that have PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING require being part of
-		 * a group and cannot exist on their own, schedule them out
-		 * and move them into the ERROR state. Also see
-		 * _perf_event_enable(), it will not be able to recover this
-		 * ERROR state.
-		 */
-		if (sibling->event_caps & PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING)
-			__event_disable(sibling, ctx, PERF_EVENT_STATE_ERROR);
-
-		sibling->group_leader = sibling;
 		list_del_init(&sibling->sibling_list);
 
 		/* Inherit group flags from the previous leader */
-		sibling->group_caps = event->group_caps;
-
-		if (sibling->attach_state & PERF_ATTACH_CONTEXT) {
-			add_event_to_groups(sibling, event->ctx);
-
-			if (sibling->state == PERF_EVENT_STATE_ACTIVE)
-				list_add_tail(&sibling->active_list, get_event_list(sibling));
-		}
+		perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(sibling, ctx, event->group_caps);
 
 		WARN_ON_ONCE(sibling->ctx != event->ctx);
 	}
+	event->nr_siblings = 0;
 
 out:
 	for_each_sibling_event(tmp, leader)
@@ -2592,12 +2603,7 @@ __perf_remove_from_context(struct perf_event *event,
 	if (flags & DETACH_DEAD)
 		state = PERF_EVENT_STATE_DEAD;
 
-	event_sched_out(event, ctx);
-
-	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF)
-		perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
-
-	perf_event_set_state(event, min(event->state, state));
+	__event_disable(event, ctx, state);
 
 	if (flags & DETACH_GROUP)
 		perf_group_detach(event);
@@ -2666,8 +2672,9 @@ static void __event_disable(struct perf_event *event,
 			    enum perf_event_state state)
 {
 	event_sched_out(event, ctx);
-	perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
-	perf_event_set_state(event, state);
+	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF)
+		perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
+	perf_event_set_state(event, min(event->state, state));
 }
 
 /*

[PATCH 6.12.y 1/2] perf: Unify perf_event_free_task() / perf_event_exit_task_context()

[Sasha Levin]

From: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>

[ Upstream commit 90661365021a6d0d7f3a2c5046ebe33e4df53b92 ]

Both perf_event_free_task() and perf_event_exit_task_context() are
very similar, except perf_event_exit_task_context() is a little more
generic / makes less assumptions.

Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Ravi Bangoria <ravi.bangoria@amd.com>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250307193723.274039710@infradead.org
Stable-dep-of: 42c5ca1f0a28 ("perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling detach")
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 kernel/events/core.c | 93 ++++++++++++--------------------------------
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 68 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index da77f856e1c83..8e2629d5305e6 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -13522,13 +13522,11 @@ perf_event_exit_event(struct perf_event *event,
 	perf_event_wakeup(event);
 }
 
-static void perf_event_exit_task_context(struct task_struct *child)
+static void perf_event_exit_task_context(struct task_struct *child, bool exit)
 {
 	struct perf_event_context *child_ctx, *clone_ctx = NULL;
 	struct perf_event *child_event, *next;
 
-	WARN_ON_ONCE(child != current);
-
 	child_ctx = perf_pin_task_context(child);
 	if (!child_ctx)
 		return;
@@ -13551,7 +13549,8 @@ static void perf_event_exit_task_context(struct task_struct *child)
 	 * in.
 	 */
 	raw_spin_lock_irq(&child_ctx->lock);
-	task_ctx_sched_out(child_ctx, NULL, EVENT_ALL);
+	if (exit)
+		task_ctx_sched_out(child_ctx, NULL, EVENT_ALL);
 
 	/*
 	 * Now that the context is inactive, destroy the task <-> ctx relation
@@ -13560,7 +13559,7 @@ static void perf_event_exit_task_context(struct task_struct *child)
 	RCU_INIT_POINTER(child->perf_event_ctxp, NULL);
 	put_ctx(child_ctx); /* cannot be last */
 	WRITE_ONCE(child_ctx->task, TASK_TOMBSTONE);
-	put_task_struct(current); /* cannot be last */
+	put_task_struct(child); /* cannot be last */
 
 	clone_ctx = unclone_ctx(child_ctx);
 	raw_spin_unlock_irq(&child_ctx->lock);
@@ -13573,13 +13572,31 @@ static void perf_event_exit_task_context(struct task_struct *child)
 	 * won't get any samples after PERF_RECORD_EXIT. We can however still
 	 * get a few PERF_RECORD_READ events.
 	 */
-	perf_event_task(child, child_ctx, 0);
+	if (exit)
+		perf_event_task(child, child_ctx, 0);
 
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(child_event, next, &child_ctx->event_list, event_entry)
 		perf_event_exit_event(child_event, child_ctx, 0);
 
 	mutex_unlock(&child_ctx->mutex);
 
+	if (!exit) {
+		/*
+		 * perf_event_release_kernel() could still have a reference on
+		 * this context. In that case we must wait for these events to
+		 * have been freed (in particular all their references to this
+		 * task must've been dropped).
+		 *
+		 * Without this copy_process() will unconditionally free this
+		 * task (irrespective of its reference count) and
+		 * _free_event()'s put_task_struct(event->hw.target) will be a
+		 * use-after-free.
+		 *
+		 * Wait for all events to drop their context reference.
+		 */
+		wait_var_event(&child_ctx->refcount,
+			       refcount_read(&child_ctx->refcount) == 1);
+	}
 	put_ctx(child_ctx);
 }
 
@@ -13607,7 +13624,7 @@ void perf_event_exit_task(struct task_struct *child)
 	}
 	mutex_unlock(&child->perf_event_mutex);
 
-	perf_event_exit_task_context(child);
+	perf_event_exit_task_context(child, true);
 
 	/*
 	 * The perf_event_exit_task_context calls perf_event_task
@@ -13618,25 +13635,6 @@ void perf_event_exit_task(struct task_struct *child)
 	perf_event_task(child, NULL, 0);
 }
 
-static void perf_free_event(struct perf_event *event,
-			    struct perf_event_context *ctx)
-{
-	struct perf_event *parent = event->parent;
-
-	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!parent))
-		return;
-
-	mutex_lock(&parent->child_mutex);
-	list_del_init(&event->child_list);
-	mutex_unlock(&parent->child_mutex);
-
-	raw_spin_lock_irq(&ctx->lock);
-	perf_group_detach(event);
-	list_del_event(event, ctx);
-	raw_spin_unlock_irq(&ctx->lock);
-	put_event(event);
-}
-
 /*
  * Free a context as created by inheritance by perf_event_init_task() below,
  * used by fork() in case of fail.
@@ -13646,48 +13644,7 @@ static void perf_free_event(struct perf_event *event,
  */
 void perf_event_free_task(struct task_struct *task)
 {
-	struct perf_event_context *ctx;
-	struct perf_event *event, *tmp;
-
-	ctx = rcu_access_pointer(task->perf_event_ctxp);
-	if (!ctx)
-		return;
-
-	mutex_lock(&ctx->mutex);
-	raw_spin_lock_irq(&ctx->lock);
-	/*
-	 * Destroy the task <-> ctx relation and mark the context dead.
-	 *
-	 * This is important because even though the task hasn't been
-	 * exposed yet the context has been (through child_list).
-	 */
-	RCU_INIT_POINTER(task->perf_event_ctxp, NULL);
-	WRITE_ONCE(ctx->task, TASK_TOMBSTONE);
-	put_task_struct(task); /* cannot be last */
-	raw_spin_unlock_irq(&ctx->lock);
-
-
-	list_for_each_entry_safe(event, tmp, &ctx->event_list, event_entry)
-		perf_free_event(event, ctx);
-
-	mutex_unlock(&ctx->mutex);
-
-	/*
-	 * perf_event_release_kernel() could've stolen some of our
-	 * child events and still have them on its free_list. In that
-	 * case we must wait for these events to have been freed (in
-	 * particular all their references to this task must've been
-	 * dropped).
-	 *
-	 * Without this copy_process() will unconditionally free this
-	 * task (irrespective of its reference count) and
-	 * _free_event()'s put_task_struct(event->hw.target) will be a
-	 * use-after-free.
-	 *
-	 * Wait for all events to drop their context reference.
-	 */
-	wait_var_event(&ctx->refcount, refcount_read(&ctx->refcount) == 1);
-	put_ctx(ctx); /* must be last */
+	perf_event_exit_task_context(task, false);
 }
 
 void perf_event_delayed_put(struct task_struct *task)
-- 
2.53.0

[PATCH 6.12.y 2/2] perf/core: Fix group leader use-after-free after sibling detach

[Sasha Levin]

From: Aditya Chillara <aditya.chillara@oss.qualcomm.com>

[ Upstream commit 42c5ca1f0a288a52878bd72a5595b08261057438 ]

perf_group_detach() handles leader and sibling detach differently. When the
group leader is detached, all siblings are promoted to singleton events and
their group_leader pointer is reset to themselves. When a sibling is
detached, it is removed from the leader's sibling_list, but its
group_leader pointer is left pointing at the old leader.

That is harmless when the sibling is being closed and freed immediately, as
in the DETACH_DEAD path. It is not safe when the sibling is detached but
kept alive, such as during CPU hotplug with DETACH_GROUP. In that case the
sibling is removed from the context, while its file descriptor can still
keep it alive.

A typical failing sequence is:

  - A group contains leader L and sibling S.
  - CPU hot-unplug detaches S with DETACH_GROUP, removing it from
    L->sibling_list but leaving S->group_leader == L.
  - L is later closed and freed.
  - A PERF_IOC_FLAG_GROUP ioctl on S follows S->group_leader and
    dereferences the freed leader.

This was reproduced by running the perf event fuzzer, CPU hotplug, and a
stress workload concurrently:

  Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 006b6b6b6b6b6cdb
  CPU: 2 PID: 12489 Comm: perf_fuzzer 6.18.7 PREEMPT
  pc : perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68
  x20: ffffff89a3fa2c70 x8 : 6b6b6b6b6b6b6b6b
  Code: 943c4a0e 340047a0 f9404a94 f9411e88 (f940b908)
  Call trace:
  perf_ioctl+0x34c/0xc68 (P)
  __arm64_sys_ioctl+0xa0/0xf4
  invoke_syscall+0x58/0xe4
  el0_svc_common+0xa8/0xdc
  do_el0_svc+0x1c/0x28
  el0_svc+0x40/0xc0
  el0t_64_sync_handler+0x68/0xdc
  el0t_64_sync+0x1c4/0x1c8

The fault happened in perf_ioctl(), where perf_event_for_each() follows
the stale group_leader pointer and perf_event_for_each_child() then
dereferences the freed leader's context.

Fix the use-after-free by promoting the detached sibling to a singleton.
Also fix __event_disable() cgroup accounting and event state change.

Fixes: 8a49542c0554 ("perf_events: Fix races in group composition")
Assisted-by: PatchWise:gpt-5.5
Signed-off-by: Aditya Chillara <aditya.chillara@oss.qualcomm.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: Dapeng Mi <dapeng1.mi@linux.intel.com>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260807-fix-group-leader-uaf-v3-1-b0c2310c9a0d@oss.qualcomm.com
[ Dropped one blank line from the context after `perf_event_set_state()` since 6.12 lacks the cosmetic whitespace added upstream. ]
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
---
 kernel/events/core.c | 66 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------
 1 file changed, 37 insertions(+), 29 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index 8e2629d5305e6..dd4d535fcb425 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -2206,6 +2206,34 @@ static inline struct list_head *get_event_list(struct perf_event *event)
 				    &event->pmu_ctx->flexible_active;
 }
 
+/* @sibling must already be unlinked from its old leader's sibling_list. */
+static void perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(struct perf_event *sibling,
+					   struct perf_event_context *ctx,
+					   int group_caps)
+{
+	/*
+	 * Events that have PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING require being part of
+	 * a group and cannot exist on their own, schedule them out
+	 * and move them into the ERROR state. Also see
+	 * _perf_event_enable(), it will not be able to recover this
+	 * ERROR state.
+	 */
+	if (sibling->event_caps & PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING)
+		__event_disable(sibling, ctx, PERF_EVENT_STATE_ERROR);
+
+	sibling->group_leader = sibling;
+	sibling->group_caps = group_caps;
+
+	if (sibling->attach_state & PERF_ATTACH_CONTEXT) {
+		add_event_to_groups(sibling, ctx);
+
+		if (sibling->state == PERF_EVENT_STATE_ACTIVE)
+			list_add_tail(&sibling->active_list, get_event_list(sibling));
+	}
+
+	perf_event__header_size(sibling);
+}
+
 static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 {
 	struct perf_event *leader = event->group_leader;
@@ -2229,8 +2257,9 @@ static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 	 */
 	if (leader != event) {
 		list_del_init(&event->sibling_list);
-		event->group_leader->nr_siblings--;
-		event->group_leader->group_generation++;
+		leader->nr_siblings--;
+		leader->group_generation++;
+		perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(event, ctx, event->event_caps);
 		goto out;
 	}
 
@@ -2240,32 +2269,14 @@ static void perf_group_detach(struct perf_event *event)
 	 * to whatever list we are on.
 	 */
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(sibling, tmp, &event->sibling_list, sibling_list) {
-
-		/*
-		 * Events that have PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING require being part of
-		 * a group and cannot exist on their own, schedule them out
-		 * and move them into the ERROR state. Also see
-		 * _perf_event_enable(), it will not be able to recover this
-		 * ERROR state.
-		 */
-		if (sibling->event_caps & PERF_EV_CAP_SIBLING)
-			__event_disable(sibling, ctx, PERF_EVENT_STATE_ERROR);
-
-		sibling->group_leader = sibling;
 		list_del_init(&sibling->sibling_list);
 
 		/* Inherit group flags from the previous leader */
-		sibling->group_caps = event->group_caps;
-
-		if (sibling->attach_state & PERF_ATTACH_CONTEXT) {
-			add_event_to_groups(sibling, event->ctx);
-
-			if (sibling->state == PERF_EVENT_STATE_ACTIVE)
-				list_add_tail(&sibling->active_list, get_event_list(sibling));
-		}
+		perf_promote_sibling_to_leader(sibling, ctx, event->group_caps);
 
 		WARN_ON_ONCE(sibling->ctx != event->ctx);
 	}
+	event->nr_siblings = 0;
 
 out:
 	for_each_sibling_event(tmp, leader)
@@ -2443,12 +2454,8 @@ __perf_remove_from_context(struct perf_event *event,
 	if (flags & DETACH_DEAD)
 		state = PERF_EVENT_STATE_DEAD;
 
-	event_sched_out(event, ctx);
+	__event_disable(event, ctx, state);
 
-	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF)
-		perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
-
-	perf_event_set_state(event, min(event->state, state));
 	if (flags & DETACH_GROUP)
 		perf_group_detach(event);
 	if (flags & DETACH_CHILD)
@@ -2517,8 +2524,9 @@ static void __event_disable(struct perf_event *event,
 			    enum perf_event_state state)
 {
 	event_sched_out(event, ctx);
-	perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
-	perf_event_set_state(event, state);
+	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF)
+		perf_cgroup_event_disable(event, ctx);
+	perf_event_set_state(event, min(event->state, state));
 }
 
 /*
-- 
2.53.0