Thread (2 messages) 2 messages, 2 authors, 2026-06-25

Re: [PATCH] tracing/user_events: Use kfree_rcu for enabler cleanup

From: Beau Belgrave <hidden>
Date: 2026-06-25 18:48:53
Also in: lkml, stable

On Thu, Jun 25, 2026 at 06:02:03PM +0000, Tristan Madani wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
From: Tristan Madani <redacted>

user_event_enabler_destroy() removes the enabler from an RCU-protected
list via list_del_rcu() and then immediately frees it with kfree(). This
can result in a concurrent reader in user_event_enabler_dup() accessing
stale memory during fork, since the enabler list is traversed under
rcu_read_lock().

The ENABLE_VAL_FREEING_BIT check in user_event_enabler_dup() is not
sufficient to prevent this, as the enabler can be freed between the bit
test and the subsequent pointer dereference.

Use kfree_rcu() to defer the free until after all RCU read-side critical
sections complete.

Fixes: 7235759084a4 ("tracing/user_events: Use remote writes for event enablement")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Tristan Madani <redacted>
---
 kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
index c4ba484f7b38b..72bcb429eb4f3 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ struct user_event_enabler {
 
 	/* Track enable bit, flags, etc. Aligned for bitops. */
 	unsigned long		values;
+	struct rcu_head		rcu;
 };
 
 /* Bits 0-5 are for the bit to update upon enable/disable (0-63 allowed) */
@@ -404,7 +405,7 @@ static void user_event_enabler_destroy(struct user_event_enabler *enabler,
 	/* No longer tracking the event via the enabler */
 	user_event_put(enabler->event, locked);
 
-	kfree(enabler);
+	kfree_rcu(enabler, rcu);
 }
 
 static int user_event_mm_fault_in(struct user_event_mm *mm, unsigned long uaddr,
-- 
2.47.3
See [1] as there are more issues than simply the enabler being freed via
RCU, there are lifetime aspects of the underlying user_event.

Thanks,
-Beau

1. https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20260618222743.538915-1-michael.bommarito@gmail.com/ (local)
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