Re: [PATCH] ima: initialize the real inode attributes of the iint cache

[Mimi Zohar <zohar@linux.ibm.com>]

On Mon, 2026-11-02 at 10:47 +0800, Cai Xinchen wrote:
> ima_iint_cache objects are allocated with kmem_cache_alloc() from a
> dedicated slab whose constructor only runs once, when the slab is first
> created; the constructor does not run again when a freed object is
> reallocated.  ima_iint_init_always() resets all iint fields except
> real_inode.ino and real_inode.dev, which therefore keep the values of
> the previously freed iint.
> 
> integrity_inode_attrs_changed() reads those fields in
> process_measurement() to detect changes to the backing file on stacked
> filesystems.  The fields are normally written by
> integrity_inode_attrs_store() from ima_collect_measurement(), but the
> IMA_HASH path sets IMA_HASHED without calling it, so on the next file
> open the stale, uninitialized ino and dev are read.  Depending on the
> residual values, IMA may skip re-evaluating a file whose backing data
> or metadata changed, or needlessly re-evaluate it.
> 
> Initialize real_inode.ino and real_inode.dev with the identification
> of the inode the iint is being associated with at allocation time.
> On stacked filesystems the first comparison against the underlying
> real inode will then fail until ima_collect_measurement() stores the
> real inode's attributes, which is the safe, conservative direction.
> 
> Fixes: b836c4d29f27 ("ima: detect changes to the backing overlay file")
> Signed-off-by: Cai Xinchen <caixinchen1@huawei.com>
> ---
>  security/integrity/ima/ima_iint.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/security/integrity/ima/ima_iint.c b/security/integrity/ima/ima_iint.c
> index 00b249101f98..02efa8eef28e 100644
> --- a/security/integrity/ima/ima_iint.c
> +++ b/security/integrity/ima/ima_iint.c
> @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ static void ima_iint_init_always(struct ima_iint_cache *iint,
>  				 struct inode *inode)
>  {
>  	iint->ima_hash = NULL;
> -	iint->real_inode.version = 0;
> +	integrity_inode_attrs_store(&iint->real_inode, 0, inode);

Thanks, Cai.

Instead of calling integrity_inode_attrs_store(), reset the entire real_inode
structure. The store sets dev and ino to the stacked inode’s values, but at
allocation time there are no valid real-inode attributes yet, so the fields
should be cleared. The patch only works because the stacked and real inodes
happen to be on different superblocks.

The Fixes: tag looks wrong. In b836c4d29f27, real_inode is an unsigned long
version and init_always() resets it fully.

thanks,

Mimi

>  	iint->flags = 0UL;
>  	iint->atomic_flags = 0UL;
>  	iint->ima_file_status = INTEGRITY_UNKNOWN;