[PATCH] tracing: Fix crash in print_graph_function_event()
From: Hao Ge <hao.ge@linux.dev>
Date: 2026-09-20 04:20:43
Also in:
lkml, stable
Subsystem:
the rest, tracing · Maintainers:
Linus Torvalds, Steven Rostedt, Masami Hiramatsu
tracing_set_tracer() assigns the flags of the newly selected tracer
with:
tr->current_trace_flags = t->flags ? : t->tracer->flags;
If the new tracer defines neither static flags nor default flags, like
hwlat, irqsoff or wakeup, add_tracer() has no per instance flags copy
for it, and both operands are NULL, so tr->current_trace_flags ends up
being NULL as well.
The ring buffer is not cleared when switching tracers: it is reset
inside tracer_init(), after current_trace_flags was already assigned.
If the buffer still holds function_graph entries of the previous
tracer, printing one of them dereferences the NULL pointer. This was
hit by cat trace during an ftrace stress test:
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
#PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
RIP: 0010:print_graph_function_event+0xe/0x20
Call Trace:
s_show+0x4d/0x110
seq_read_iter+0x2d4/0x490
seq_read+0x130/0x170
vfs_read+0xb5/0x370
ksys_read+0x6d/0xe0
do_syscall_64+0xbc/0x450
The snapshot buffer is not reset at all, so this can be reproduced
without a race:
echo function_graph > /sys/kernel/tracing/current_tracer
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/tracing/snapshot
echo hwlat > /sys/kernel/tracing/current_tracer
cat /sys/kernel/tracing/snapshot
Rather than teaching every user of tr->current_trace_flags about this
corner case, make sure every tracer has a set of flags:
register_tracer() assigns the empty no_tracer_flags to tracers that
define none. The existing users already handle opts == NULL, so these
tracers keep behaving as before.
Fixes: e29aa918a928 ("tracing: Have function graph tracer define options per instance")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Hao Ge <hao.ge@linux.dev>
---
kernel/trace/trace.c | 13 +++++++++----
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index e4a490d3d08c..1bd757b65be4 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c@@ -99,6 +99,12 @@ struct tracers { struct tracer_flags *flags; }; +/* + * Tracers that do not define their own flags use these empty flags, + * as tr->current_trace_flags must never be NULL. + */ +static struct tracer_flags no_tracer_flags; + /* * To prevent the comm cache from being overwritten when no * tracing is active, only save the comm when a trace event
@@ -1485,9 +1491,11 @@ int __init register_tracer(struct tracer *type) } } - /* store the tracer for __set_tracer_option */ + /* All tracers must have flags, use the empty flags if none are defined */ if (type->flags) type->flags->trace = type; + else if (!type->default_flags) + type->default_flags = &no_tracer_flags; ret = do_run_tracer_selftest(type); if (ret < 0)
@@ -8096,9 +8104,6 @@ static int add_tracer(struct trace_array *tr, struct tracer *tracer) flags = tracer->flags; if (!flags) { - if (!tracer->default_flags) - return 0; - /* * If the tracer defines default flags, it means the flags are * per trace instance.
--
2.25.1