From: Aldo Ariel Panzardo <qwe.aldo@gmail.com>
To: gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, rafael@kernel.org, dakr@kernel.org
Cc: driver-core@lists.linux.dev, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
stable@vger.kernel.org, Aldo Ariel Panzardo <qwe.aldo@gmail.com>,
"sashiko . dev" <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v3 1/2] debugfs: fix use-after-free in debugfs_read_file_str()
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2026 11:09:18 -0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260926140918.1077347-1-qwe.aldo@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <2026092647-ebony-unlatch-d3d0@gregkh>
debugfs_write_file_str() publishes a new string pointer via
rcu_assign_pointer(), waits for a grace period with synchronize_rcu(),
then frees the old string.
debugfs_read_file_str() dereferences file->private_data without holding
an RCU read-side critical section: it loads the pointer, calls strlen()
on it, and then copies the string. If a concurrent writer completes
synchronize_rcu() and kfree()s the old string between the load and the
use, the reader accesses freed memory.
Fix by wrapping the pointer dereference and copy inside
rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock(), using rcu_dereference() to annotate
the load. Switch to kmemdup() with GFP_ATOMIC so the allocation stays
within the RCU critical section.
Tested on QEMU/KVM (7.3.0-rc4 + KASAN). While KASAN did not
independently confirm this particular race window (it is a very narrow
reader-side window), the companion double-free in the write path
confirms that the RCU synchronization in this file is incomplete (see
the following patch).
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Assisted-by: sashiko.dev <sashiko-bot@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Aldo Ariel Panzardo <qwe.aldo@gmail.com>
---
fs/debugfs/file.c | 25 +++++++++----------------
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
diff --git a/fs/debugfs/file.c b/fs/debugfs/file.c
index 08de6652a..ac4199e9f 100644
--- a/fs/debugfs/file.c
+++ b/fs/debugfs/file.c
@@ -1018,34 +1018,27 @@ ssize_t debugfs_read_file_str(struct file *file, char __user *user_buf,
size_t count, loff_t *ppos)
{
struct dentry *dentry = F_DENTRY(file);
- char *str, *copy = NULL;
- int copy_len, len;
+ char *str, *copy;
+ int len;
ssize_t ret;
ret = debugfs_file_get(dentry);
if (unlikely(ret))
return ret;
- str = *(char **)file->private_data;
+ rcu_read_lock();
+ str = rcu_dereference(*(char __rcu **)file->private_data);
len = strlen(str) + 1;
- copy = kmalloc(len, GFP_KERNEL);
- if (!copy) {
- debugfs_file_put(dentry);
- return -ENOMEM;
- }
+ copy = kmemdup(str, len, GFP_ATOMIC);
+ rcu_read_unlock();
- copy_len = strscpy(copy, str, len);
debugfs_file_put(dentry);
- if (copy_len < 0) {
- kfree(copy);
- return copy_len;
- }
-
- copy[copy_len] = '\n';
+ if (!copy)
+ return -ENOMEM;
+ copy[len - 1] = '\n';
ret = simple_read_from_buffer(user_buf, count, ppos, copy, len);
kfree(copy);
-
return ret;
}
--
2.43.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-09-26 14:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-25 17:58 [PATCH] debugfs: fix UAF and double-free in debugfs_str read/write Aldo Ariel Panzardo
2026-09-26 6:53 ` Greg KH
2026-09-26 13:47 ` [PATCH v2 0/2] " Aldo Ariel Panzardo
2026-09-26 13:47 ` [PATCH v2 1/2] debugfs: fix use-after-free in debugfs_read_file_str() Aldo Ariel Panzardo
2026-09-26 13:48 ` [PATCH v2 2/2] debugfs: serialize concurrent writers in debugfs_write_file_str() Aldo Ariel Panzardo
2026-09-26 14:09 ` [PATCH v3 0/2] debugfs: fix UAF and double-free in debugfs_str read/write Aldo Ariel Panzardo
2026-09-26 14:09 ` Aldo Ariel Panzardo [this message]
2026-09-26 15:53 ` [PATCH v3 1/2] debugfs: fix use-after-free in debugfs_read_file_str() Danilo Krummrich
2026-09-26 14:09 ` [PATCH v3 2/2] debugfs: serialize concurrent writers in debugfs_write_file_str() Aldo Ariel Panzardo
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