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From: James Houghton <jthoughton@google.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>,
	Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>,  Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
	David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
	Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>,
	 "Liam R. Howlett" <liam@infradead.org>,
	Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>,
	Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>,
	 Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
	Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>,
	 Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
	Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>,
	 Jim Mattson <jmattson@google.com>, Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>,
	 Pavel Begunkov <asml.silence@gmail.com>,
	 "James E.J. Bottomley" <James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com>,
	 "Martin K. Petersen" <mkp@kernel.org>,
	David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>, Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>,
	 Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>,
	Daniel Borkmann <daniel@iogearbox.net>,
	 John Fastabend <john.fastabend@gmail.com>,
	Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>,
	 Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
	Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>,
	 Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
	 Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@kernel.org>,
	Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org,  linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
	kvm@vger.kernel.org, io-uring@vger.kernel.org,
	 linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org,
	bpf@vger.kernel.org,  linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-perf-users@vger.kernel.org,  linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	James Houghton <jthoughton@google.com>
Subject: [RFC PATCH 07/10] uaccess: Fail user nofault helpers quietly when current->mm is NULL
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:52:23 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261026215226.3713941-8-jthoughton@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261026215226.3713941-1-jthoughton@google.com>

The user nofault helpers (copy_{from,to}_user_nofault(),
strncpy_from_user_nofault() and strnlen_user_nofault()) are meant to be
callable from any context, e.g. from BPF programs, kprobes or perf, which
may run on behalf of a kernel thread or of a task that has already gone
through exit_mm(). In such a context, there is no user memory to access,
and the right answer is simply to fail.

Since the previous commit, the uaccess helpers they use warn when
current->mm is NULL, e.g. bpf_probe_read_user_str() from a BPF program
attached to a function called by a kernel thread would now trip the
WARN_ON_ONCE() in strncpy_from_user().

Check for a NULL current->mm up front in these helpers, and fail without
warning and without attempting the access.

On x86, copy_from_user_nofault() was already refusing such accesses, as
nmi_uaccess_okay() returns false when current->mm is not the loaded mm.

For the same reason, make copy_to_user_iter_nofault() use
should_fail_usercopy() directly, leaving the NULL mm check to
copy_to_user_nofault().

Signed-off-by: James Houghton <jthoughton@google.com>
---
 lib/iov_iter.c |  2 +-
 mm/maccess.c   | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/lib/iov_iter.c b/lib/iov_iter.c
index 3d6ecb50d778..21e2ccf1e8f2 100644
--- a/lib/iov_iter.c
+++ b/lib/iov_iter.c
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ size_t copy_to_user_iter_nofault(void __user *iter_to, size_t progress,
 {
 	ssize_t res;
 
-	if (uaccess_should_fail())
+	if (should_fail_usercopy())
 		return len;
 
 	from += progress;
diff --git a/mm/maccess.c b/mm/maccess.c
index 486559d68858..678bb6165b39 100644
--- a/mm/maccess.c
+++ b/mm/maccess.c
@@ -121,6 +121,14 @@ long copy_from_user_nofault(void *dst, const void __user *src, size_t size)
 {
 	long ret = -EFAULT;
 
+	/*
+	 * The user nofault helpers may be called from any context, including
+	 * from tasks that have no user memory to access (e.g. kernel threads).
+	 * Fail quietly instead of tripping the warning in the uaccess helpers.
+	 */
+	if (!current->mm)
+		return ret;
+
 	if (!__access_ok(src, size))
 		return ret;
 
@@ -150,6 +158,9 @@ long copy_to_user_nofault(void __user *dst, const void *src, size_t size)
 {
 	long ret = -EFAULT;
 
+	if (!current->mm)
+		return ret;
+
 	if (access_ok(dst, size)) {
 		pagefault_disable();
 		ret = __copy_to_user_inatomic(dst, src, size);
@@ -188,6 +199,9 @@ long strncpy_from_user_nofault(char *dst, const void __user *unsafe_addr,
 	if (unlikely(count <= 0))
 		return 0;
 
+	if (!current->mm)
+		return -EFAULT;
+
 	pagefault_disable();
 	ret = strncpy_from_user(dst, unsafe_addr, count);
 	pagefault_enable();
@@ -222,6 +236,9 @@ long strnlen_user_nofault(const void __user *unsafe_addr, long count)
 {
 	int ret;
 
+	if (!current->mm)
+		return 0;
+
 	pagefault_disable();
 	ret = strnlen_user(unsafe_addr, count);
 	pagefault_enable();
-- 
2.56.0.307.g5fe7bd680c-goog


  parent reply	other threads:[~2026-10-26 21:52 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-10-26 21:52 [RFC PATCH 00/10] uaccess: Refuse and warn on user accesses " James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 01/10] scsi: bsg: Don't copy sense data to user memory when canceled James Houghton
2026-10-27  2:41   ` Jens Axboe
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 02/10] btrfs: Don't copy encoded read " James Houghton
2026-10-27  2:42   ` Jens Axboe
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 03/10] bpf: Fail sleepable user copy helpers when current->mm is NULL James Houghton
2026-10-26 22:30   ` bot+bpf-ci
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 04/10] stacktrace: Don't unwind the user stack without an mm James Houghton
2026-10-26 22:30   ` bot+bpf-ci
2026-10-26 22:55     ` James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 05/10] perf/core: " James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 06/10] uaccess: Refuse and warn on user copies when current->mm is NULL James Houghton
2026-10-26 22:42   ` bot+bpf-ci
2026-10-26 23:41     ` James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` James Houghton [this message]
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 08/10] uaccess: Refuse and warn on __copy_from_user_inatomic() without an mm James Houghton
2026-10-26 22:30   ` bot+bpf-ci
2026-10-26 22:41     ` James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 09/10] uaccess: Refuse and warn on more user accesses " James Houghton
2026-10-26 21:52 ` [RFC PATCH 10/10] uaccess: Move the NULL mm warning out of line James Houghton
2026-10-26 23:02   ` Arnd Bergmann
2026-10-26 23:51     ` James Houghton
2026-10-27  0:12 ` [RFC PATCH 00/10] uaccess: Refuse and warn on user accesses when current->mm is NULL Arnd Bergmann
2026-10-27 10:33   ` Arnd Bergmann

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