From: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
To: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
Kyle Zeng <kylebot@openai.com>
Subject: [patch 6.18.y 2/5] futex: Sanitize and document task_struct::futex::state transitions
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:48:01 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260825091134.569757390@kernel.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 20260825091033.136528074@kernel.org
From: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
commit f9ece060cc43eae8a1f148737d193ba0d07b8f88 upstream.
The futex state is used to prevent a waiter from attaching to the lock
owner while the owner runs the futex cleanup in exit() or exec().
Only the state transition from FUTEX_STATE_OK to FUTEX_STATE_EXITING must
be done with the task's pi_lock held, the transition away from
FUTEX_STATE_EXITING has no serialization requirements on the writer side,
but it's completely non obvious why. It's magically protected by
exit_pi_state(), which operates under tsk::pi_lock, as that's the state
which has to be correct when the waiter observes the new state.
OTOH, taking the pi_lock in futex_cleanup_end() is not a performance issue
because at that point the lock should be uncontended in the vast majority
of cases.
Aside of that the handling of FUTEX_STATE_EXITING in attach_to_pi_owner()
and handle_exit_race() is confusing at best.
Protect the store in futex_cleanup_end() with tsk::pi_lock, handle
FUTEX_STATE_EXITING in attach_to_pi_owner() explicitly and document how
this is supposed to work.
Reported-by: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kyle Zeng <kylebot@openai.com>
Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
---
kernel/futex/core.c | 8 +--
kernel/futex/pi.c | 105 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
2 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 40 deletions(-)
---
--- a/kernel/futex/core.c
+++ b/kernel/futex/core.c
@@ -1498,11 +1498,9 @@ static void futex_cleanup_begin(struct t
static void futex_cleanup_end(struct task_struct *tsk, int state)
{
- /*
- * Lockless store. The only side effect is that an observer might
- * take another loop until it becomes visible.
- */
- tsk->futex_state = state;
+ scoped_guard(raw_spinlock_irq, &tsk->pi_lock)
+ tsk->futex_state = state;
+
/*
* Drop the exit protection. This unblocks waiters which observed
* FUTEX_STATE_EXITING to reevaluate the state.
--- a/kernel/futex/pi.c
+++ b/kernel/futex/pi.c
@@ -193,6 +193,48 @@ void put_pi_state(struct futex_pi_state
* pi_mutex->wait_lock
* p->pi_lock
*
+ * Futex kernel state:
+ *
+ * The kernel tracks the task state in p::futex::state to protect against exit()
+ * and exec(). The states are:
+ *
+ * - FUTEX_STATE_OK when the task is alive and waiters can be attached
+ *
+ * - FUTEX_STATE_EXITING when the task cleans up the robust list and pi
+ * state. Concurrent waiters cannot attach anymore and have to wait until the
+ * cleanup is finished to re-evaluate the potential changes of robust list and
+ * pi state cleanups.
+ *
+ * - FUTEX_STATE_DEAD when the task has cleaned up the robust list and
+ * is about to fully exit.
+ *
+ * exec() switches back to FUTEX_STATE_OK after the cleanup.
+ *
+ * The state has two related locks:
+ *
+ * 1) p::pi_lock
+ *
+ * p::pi_lock has to be taken by the waiter when evaluating the state to
+ * protect against a concurrent exit/exec cleanup by the owner. If the state
+ * is OK then the waiter can be attached to the owner while still holding
+ * pi_lock.
+ *
+ * The cleanup code has to hold it for all state transitions to ensure that
+ * the stores to the state cannot be reordered against previous stores on
+ * which the waiter correctness depends on.
+ *
+ * 2) p::futex::exit_mutex
+ *
+ * The mutex is acquired when the cleanup starts and released at the end. It
+ * obviously is not serializing the owner's cleanup against itself. It is
+ * used to avoid a live lock caused by a waiter preempting the owner's
+ * cleanup. Such a waiter would busy loop forever waiting for the owner to
+ * finish the cleanup.
+ *
+ * To prevent this, waiters have to drop all locks when observing
+ * FUTEX_STATE_EXITING and block on the mutex. When the owner releases the
+ * mutex after finishing the cleanup the waiters make progress and
+ * re-evaluate the situation.
*/
/*
@@ -318,19 +360,11 @@ static int attach_to_pi_state(u32 __user
return ret;
}
-static int handle_exit_race(u32 __user *uaddr, u32 uval,
- struct task_struct *tsk)
+static int handle_exit_race(u32 __user *uaddr, u32 uval)
{
u32 uval2;
/*
- * If the futex exit state is not yet FUTEX_STATE_DEAD, tell the
- * caller that the alleged owner is busy.
- */
- if (tsk && tsk->futex_state != FUTEX_STATE_DEAD)
- return -EBUSY;
-
- /*
* Reread the user space value to handle the following situation:
*
* CPU0 CPU1
@@ -426,7 +460,7 @@ static int attach_to_pi_owner(u32 __user
return -EAGAIN;
p = find_get_task_by_vpid(pid);
if (!p)
- return handle_exit_race(uaddr, uval, NULL);
+ return handle_exit_race(uaddr, uval);
if (unlikely(p->flags & PF_KTHREAD)) {
put_task_struct(p);
@@ -434,41 +468,42 @@ static int attach_to_pi_owner(u32 __user
}
/*
- * We need to look at the task state to figure out, whether the
- * task is exiting. To protect against the change of the task state
- * in futex_exit_release(), we do this protected by p->pi_lock:
+ * We need to look at the task state to figure out whether the task is
+ * exiting. To protect against the change of the task state from
+ * FUTEX_STATE_OK to FUTEX_STATE_EXISTING in futex_cleanup_begin() it is
+ * required to do this protected by p->pi_lock, which prevents the owner
+ * from concurrently starting the exit cleanup.
+ *
+ * If the state is FUTEX_STATE_OK pi_lock must be held until the waiter
+ * is attached to protect against a concurrent exit()/exec().
*/
raw_spin_lock_irq(&p->pi_lock);
+
+ /* Validate that the task is ready for futex operations. */
if (unlikely(p->futex_state != FUTEX_STATE_OK)) {
/*
- * The task is on the way out. When the futex state is
- * FUTEX_STATE_DEAD, we know that the task has finished
- * the cleanup:
+ * The task is on the way out. When state is FUTEX_STATE_EXITING
+ * the cleanup is in progress. To avoid a live lock when the
+ * waiter preempted the owner, store the task pointer in
+ * @exiting and keep the reference on the task. The calling code
+ * will drop all locks, block on @p::futex::exit_mutex and wait
+ * for the owner to finish the cleanup. Once the owner released
+ * the mutex the waiter drops the reference count and
+ * re-evaluates the situation.
*/
- int ret = handle_exit_race(uaddr, uval, p);
+ if (p->futex_state == FUTEX_STATE_EXITING) {
+ raw_spin_unlock_irq(&p->pi_lock);
+ *exiting = p;
+ return -EBUSY;
+ }
+
+ int ret = handle_exit_race(uaddr, uval);
raw_spin_unlock_irq(&p->pi_lock);
- /*
- * If the owner task is between FUTEX_STATE_EXITING and
- * FUTEX_STATE_DEAD then store the task pointer and keep
- * the reference on the task struct. The calling code will
- * drop all locks, wait for the task to reach
- * FUTEX_STATE_DEAD and then drop the refcount. This is
- * required to prevent a live lock when the current task
- * preempted the exiting task between the two states.
- */
- if (ret == -EBUSY)
- *exiting = p;
- else
- put_task_struct(p);
+ put_task_struct(p);
return ret;
}
- /*
- * If the owner is about to exit() or exec() and tries to modify
- * p::futex::exit_state it is serialized against this code by
- * p::pi_lock.
- */
if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MMU) && futex_key_is_private(key)) {
/*
* A private futex key holds a pointer to the waiter's mm
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-25 12:48 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-24 10:56 FAILED: patch "[PATCH] futex/pi: Reject cross-mm private futex owners" failed to apply to 6.18-stable tree gregkh
2026-08-25 12:47 ` [patch 6.18.y 0/5] futex: Stable backports for recent issues Thomas Gleixner
2026-08-25 12:47 ` [patch 6.18.y 1/5] futex/pi: Reject cross-mm private futex owners Thomas Gleixner
2026-08-25 12:48 ` Thomas Gleixner [this message]
2026-08-25 12:48 ` [patch 6.18.y 3/5] futex/pi: Plug private futex exec() race Thomas Gleixner
2026-08-25 12:48 ` [patch 6.18.y 4/5] futex: Fix race on the initial mm->futex.phash.ref allocation Thomas Gleixner
2026-08-25 12:48 ` [patch 6.18.y 5/5] futex: Fix might_sleep() warning in futex_pivot_pending() Thomas Gleixner
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