From: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>, Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>, Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>, Marco Elver <elver@google.com>,
GONG Ruiqi <gongruiqi@huaweicloud.com>,
Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org,
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
kernel-team@meta.com
Subject: [PATCH v3 1/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED by default
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2026 00:51:25 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <25b5bf9a7ef115709f1149044824576e6f71e71c.1794506262.git.chris@chrisdown.name> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cover.1794506262.git.chris@chrisdown.name>
SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED obfuscates the free pointers stored in free
objects, and catches naive double frees and frees to the wrong cache.
Most distros already enable it, and with sheaves its cost is small,
since the per-cpu fast paths don't touch freelists. Measurements also
show this quite clearly [1][2].
So let's just enable it by default. SLAB_BUCKETS defaults to
SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED, so it's now enabled by default too.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/auITixAJMfLtfa7i@chrisdown.name/ [1]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/179312451613.474906.1475329637924619088@kernel.org/ [2]
Suggested-by: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Chris Down <chris@chrisdown.name>
---
mm/Kconfig | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index afff1b25b543..f330c2c29fd2 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@ config SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM
config SLAB_FREELIST_HARDENED
bool "Harden slab freelist metadata"
depends on !SLUB_TINY
+ default y
help
Many kernel heap attacks try to target slab cache metadata and
other infrastructure. This options makes minor performance
--
2.56.1
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-11-13 8:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-11-13 8:51 [PATCH v3 0/6] mm/slab: Support selecting slab hardening features at boot Chris Down
2026-11-13 8:51 ` Chris Down [this message]
2026-11-13 8:51 ` [PATCH v3 2/6] mm/slab: Enable SLAB_FREELIST_RANDOM by default Chris Down
2026-11-13 8:51 ` [PATCH v3 3/6] mm/slab: Support disabling SLAB_BUCKETS at boot Chris Down
2026-11-13 8:51 ` [PATCH v3 4/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the slab_buckets boot parameter Chris Down
2026-11-13 8:51 ` [PATCH v3 5/6] mm/slab: Support disabling KMALLOC_PARTITION_CACHES at boot Chris Down
2026-11-13 8:51 ` [PATCH v3 6/6] slub_kunit: Add a test for the kmalloc_partition boot parameter Chris Down
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