FAILED: patch "[PATCH] eventpoll: pin files while checking reverse paths" failed to apply to 6.12-stable tree

PATCH New [email protected] 2 participants 2 messages Jul 29 – Aug 9

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2026-07-29 13:56 UTC #0 lore raw

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 <[email protected]>.

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 8b7e8245e2293078f657521236ac92c045552e5a
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<[email protected]>' --in-reply-to '2026072903-exact-prototype-2cfe@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 6.12.y' 'HEAD^..'

Possible dependencies:

thanks,

greg k-h

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

From 8b7e8245e2293078f657521236ac92c045552e5a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Guidong Han <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2026 18:44:06 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] eventpoll: pin files while checking reverse paths

Commit 319c15174757 ("epoll: take epitem list out of struct file") intentionally removed temporary file references from the reverse path check list. At the time, both epitems and their files were freed after an RCU grace period, so unlist_file() could obtain file->f_lock through an epitem while clear_tfile_check_list() held rcu_read_lock().

Commit 0ede61d8589c ("file: convert to SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU") made struct file SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU and removed its RCU-delayed freeing. RCU still protects the epitem, but no longer keeps the referenced file from being freed and reused. A concurrent close can therefore make unlist_file() lock or unlock f_lock in a recycled file object.

This violates the documented SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU rule requiring a reference before acquiring an object's lock. The race was reproduced, causing a wild unlock of f_lock in a recycled file and breaking its mutual exclusion.

Add ->file to epitems_head to remember the pinned file independently of ->epitems. A concurrent EPOLL_CTL_DEL can empty ->epitems before the head is unlisted, leaving no epi->ffd.file from which to drop the reference.

In list_file(), acquire the reference before adding the head to the check list. The caller either owns a reference or holds the ep->mtx for the epitem leading to the file. In the latter case, file_ref_get() can fail after the last reference is dropped, but eventpoll_release_file() must acquire the same mutex before the file can be freed. The dying leaf can be skipped because removing links cannot increase the reverse path count.

In unlist_file(), epnested_mutex excludes another list_file() or unlist_file(), while head->next prevents a concurrent EPOLL_CTL_DEL from freeing the head. Save head->file locally, clear it with head->next under f_lock, and drop the reference after the RCU-protected operation.

Christian Brauner <[email protected]> quotes:

Quoted 57 lines

SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU allows a slab slot to be reused while an RCU reader still holds its old address. Once that address contains a new live struct file, KASAN sees valid, unpoisoned memory and cannot distinguish the stale object identity. CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK exposes the failure instead.
The failing interleaving is:
CPU0: nested EPOLL_CTL_ADD CPU1: close/open churn
------------------------------------ ---------------------------------
p = hlist_first_rcu(&head->epitems)
epi = container_of(p, ...)
                                       close(victim)
                                         __fput()
                                           eventpoll_release_file()
                                           file_free(victim)
                                       // the slot is free; f_lock remains
spin_lock(&epi->ffd.file->f_lock)
open() reuses the slot as new_file
spin_lock_init(&new_file->f_lock)
spin_unlock(&epi->ffd.file->f_lock) // wild unlock of new_file's lock
CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK reports:
BUG: spinlock already unlocked on CPU#0, poc_unlist/150
 lock: 0xffff8880067fb200, .magic: dead4ead, .owner: <none>/-1, .owner_cpu: -1
CPU: 0 UID: 1000 PID: 150 Comm: poc_unlist Not tainted 7.2.0-rc3-dirty #22 PREEMPTLAZY
Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC v2 (i440FX + PIIX, arch_caps fix, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 dump_stack_lvl+0x64/0x80
 do_raw_spin_unlock+0x75/0xb0
 _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x30
 clear_tfile_check_list+0x88/0xe0
 do_epoll_ctl_file+0x519/0xcf0
 ? __pfx_ep_ptable_queue_proc+0x10/0x10
 do_epoll_ctl+0x8f/0x100
 __x64_sys_epoll_ctl+0x6f/0xa0
 do_syscall_64+0xdc/0x520
 ? srso_alias_return_thunk+0x5/0xfbef5
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
RIP: 0033:0x42034e
Code: 48 c7 c1 b8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 e9 00 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 01 f0 ff ff 73 01 c3 48 c7 c1 b8 ff ff ff f7 d8 64 89 01 48
RSP: 002b:00007a657ff3c198 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000e9
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007a657ff3ccdc RCX: 000000000042034e
RDX: 0000000000000003 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000004
RBP: 00007a657ff3c2f0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007a657ff3c6c0
R10: 00007a657ff3c1a4 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 00007a657ff3c6c0
R13: ffffffffffffffb8 R14: 000000000000000d R15: 00007fffb7de0210
 </TASK>
------------[ cut here ]------------
unlist_file() does not appear as a separate frame because it was inlined into clear_tfile_check_list(). This report was obtained with mdelay() instrumentation immediately before spin_lock() and spin_unlock() in unlist_file() to widen the two race windows.

Quoted 5 lines

More importantly, this is a wild unlock. The stale unlock can target f_lock of a different live file and invalidate mutual exclusion for state protected by that lock. Turning this into a reliable exploit would require precise scheduling and same-slot reuse and is likely difficult, but the primitive is potentially exploitable.

Reported-by Qi Tang <[email protected]>

Reported-by Junxi Qian <[email protected]>

Fixes 0ede61d8589c ("file: convert to SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU")

Cc [email protected]

Signed-off-by Guidong Han <[email protected]>

Link https://patch.msgid.link/[email protected] open here

Signed-off-by Christian Brauner (Amutable) <[email protected]>

fs/eventpoll.c +17 -1

index 0e65c7431dfc..eed8cecd94e3 100644
@@ -459,11 +459,14 @@ static struct kmem_cache *pwq_cache __ro_after_init;
  * Wrapper anchor for file->f_ep when the watched file is not itself an
  * eventpoll; for the epoll-watches-epoll case, file->f_ep points at
  * &watched_ep->refs directly. The ->next field threads
- * ctx->tfile_check_list during one EPOLL_CTL_ADD path check.
+ * ctx->tfile_check_list during one EPOLL_CTL_ADD path check. The ->file
+ * field holds a reference to the associated file while the head is on
+ * the list.
  */
 struct epitems_head {
 	struct hlist_head epitems;
 	struct epitems_head *next;
+	struct file *file;
 };
 
 static struct kmem_cache *ephead_cache __ro_after_init;

@@ -480,6 +483,16 @@ static void list_file(struct file *file, struct ep_ctl_ctx *ctx)
 
 	head = container_of(file->f_ep, struct epitems_head, epitems);
 	if (!head->next) {
+		/*
+		 * The caller owns a reference to @file or holds the ep->mtx for the
+		 * epitem that led here. The latter blocks eventpoll_release_file()
+		 * before the file allocation can be freed and reused. A dying leaf
+		 * can be skipped since removing links cannot increase the reverse
+		 * path count.
+		 */
+		if (!file_ref_get(&file->f_ref))
+			return;
+		head->file = file;
 		head->next = ctx->tfile_check_list;
 		ctx->tfile_check_list = head;
 	}

@@ -489,15 +502,18 @@ static void unlist_file(struct epitems_head *head)
 {
 	struct epitems_head *to_free = head;
 	struct hlist_node *p = rcu_dereference(hlist_first_rcu(&head->epitems));
+	struct file *file = head->file;
 	if (p) {
 		struct epitem *epi= container_of(p, struct epitem, fllink);
 		spin_lock(&epi->ffd.file->f_lock);
 		if (!hlist_empty(&head->epitems))
 			to_free = NULL;
 		head->next = NULL;
+		head->file = NULL;
 		spin_unlock(&epi->ffd.file->f_lock);
 	}
 	free_ephead(to_free);
+	fput(file);
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_SYSCTL

Sasha Levin

maintainer

2026-08-09 00:48 UTC #1 lore raw

PATCH 1/1 eventpoll: pin files while checking reverse paths

From: Guidong Han <[email protected]>

[ Upstream commit 8b7e8245e2293078f657521236ac92c045552e5a ]