[RFC v3 2/2] arm64: kprobes: Allow reentering kprobes while single-stepping
From: Pu Hu <hidden>
Date: 2026-07-10 06:32:59
Also in:
lkml
Subsystem:
arm64 port (aarch64 architecture), the rest · Maintainers:
Catalin Marinas, Will Deacon, Linus Torvalds
From: Pu Hu <redacted>
A kprobe can be hit while another kprobe is in KPROBE_HIT_SS state. This
can happen when tracing or perf code runs from the debug exception path
while the first kprobe is preparing or executing its out-of-line
single-step instruction.
Currently arm64 treats a kprobe hit in KPROBE_HIT_SS as unrecoverable,
the same as a hit in KPROBE_REENTER. This is too strict. A hit in
KPROBE_HIT_SS is still a one-level reentry and can be handled by saving
the current kprobe state and setting up single-step for the new probe,
just like reentry from KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE or KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE.
The truly unrecoverable case is hitting another kprobe while already in
KPROBE_REENTER, because the reentry save area has already been consumed.
Move KPROBE_HIT_SS to the recoverable reentry cases and leave
KPROBE_REENTER as the unrecoverable nested reentry case.
This change also requires saving saved_irqflag in struct prev_kprobe.
When a nested kprobe calls kprobes_save_local_irqflag(), it overwrites
kcb->saved_irqflag with the currently masked DAIF value, losing the
outer kprobe's original DAIF state. Without this fix, when the outer
kprobe's single-step finishes, kprobes_restore_local_irqflag() applies
the wrong DAIF mask and leaves interrupts permanently disabled.
Extend struct prev_kprobe with a saved_irqflag field and save/restore it
alongside kp and status. This ensures the outer kprobe's original
interrupt state is preserved across reentry.
This mirrors the x86 fix in commit 6a5022a56ac3
("kprobes/x86: Allow to handle reentered kprobe on single-stepping").
Signed-off-by: Pu Hu <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Hongyan Xia <redacted>
---
arch/arm64/include/asm/kprobes.h | 6 ++++++
arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
2 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/kprobes.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/kprobes.h
index f2782560647b..35ce2c94040e 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/kprobes.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/kprobes.h@@ -26,6 +26,12 @@ struct prev_kprobe { struct kprobe *kp; unsigned int status; + + /* + * The original DAIF state of the outer kprobe, saved here before + * a nested kprobe overwrites kcb->saved_irqflag during reentry. + */ + unsigned long saved_irqflag; }; /* per-cpu kprobe control block */
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c
index 798e4b091d1a..4e0efad5caf2 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c@@ -174,12 +174,27 @@ static void __kprobes save_previous_kprobe(struct kprobe_ctlblk *kcb) { kcb->prev_kprobe.kp = kprobe_running(); kcb->prev_kprobe.status = kcb->kprobe_status; + + /* + * Save the outer kprobe's original DAIF flags before the nested + * kprobe calls kprobes_save_local_irqflag() and overwrites + * kcb->saved_irqflag. Without this, the outer kprobe will restore + * the wrong DAIF state and leave interrupts permanently masked. + */ + kcb->prev_kprobe.saved_irqflag = kcb->saved_irqflag; } static void __kprobes restore_previous_kprobe(struct kprobe_ctlblk *kcb) { __this_cpu_write(current_kprobe, kcb->prev_kprobe.kp); kcb->kprobe_status = kcb->prev_kprobe.status; + + /* + * Restore the outer kprobe's saved_irqflag so that when its + * single-step completes, kprobes_restore_local_irqflag() uses + * the correct original DAIF value. + */ + kcb->saved_irqflag = kcb->prev_kprobe.saved_irqflag; } static void __kprobes set_current_kprobe(struct kprobe *p)
@@ -240,10 +255,16 @@ static int __kprobes reenter_kprobe(struct kprobe *p, switch (kcb->kprobe_status) { case KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE: case KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE: + case KPROBE_HIT_SS: + /* + * A probe can be hit while another kprobe is preparing or + * executing its XOL single-step instruction. This is still a + * recoverable one-level reentry, so handle it in the same way as + * reentry from KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE or KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE. + */ kprobes_inc_nmissed_count(p); setup_singlestep(p, regs, kcb, 1); break; - case KPROBE_HIT_SS: case KPROBE_REENTER: pr_warn("Failed to recover from reentered kprobes.\n"); dump_kprobe(p);
--
2.43.0