Re: rt_spin_unlock order of operations [was: Re: [syzbot] [fs?] KASAN: slab-use-after-free Read in shrink_dcache_tree]

[Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>]

On Thu, 2026-06-18 at 21:59 +0100, Al Viro wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 18, 2026 at 08:44:32PM +0200, Jann Horn wrote:
> > I think this is more of a bug in RT spinlocks than a VFS bug, though
> > it's a bit murky.
> > 
> > rt_spin_unlock() looks like this:
> > 
> > void __sched rt_spin_unlock(spinlock_t *lock) __releases(RCU)
> > {
> >         spin_release(&lock->dep_map, _RET_IP_);
> >         migrate_enable();
> >         rcu_read_unlock();
> > 
> >         if (unlikely(!rt_mutex_cmpxchg_release(&lock->lock, current, NULL)))
> >                 rt_mutex_slowunlock(&lock->lock);
> > }
> > 
> > Note how the RCU read-side critical section and the protection against
> > migration end *before* the lock is actually released, which means this
> > can UAF if the RCU read-side critical section implied by the spinlock
> > is the only thing keeping the lock alive. While non-RT spinlocks do
> > this the other way around (do_raw_spin_unlock() before
> > preempt_enable()):
> > 
> > static inline void __raw_spin_unlock(raw_spinlock_t *lock)
> >         __releases(lock)
> > {
> >         spin_release(&lock->dep_map, _RET_IP_);
> >         do_raw_spin_unlock(lock);
> >         preempt_enable();
> > }
> > 
> > https://docs.kernel.org/next/RCU/whatisRCU.html guarantees that
> > spinlock APIs imply RCU, and
> > https://docs.kernel.org/locking/mutex-design.html says: "This is in
> > contrast with spin_unlock() [...], which APIs can be used to guarantee
> > that the memory is not touched by the lock implementation after
> > spin_unlock()/completion_done() releases the lock.".
> > Neither of these explicitly guarantees that the RCU read-side critical
> > section (and the protection against migration?) should still hold
> > while the lock is being dropped, but I think that would fit best with
> > the explicit guarantees?
> 
> I'm trying to recall if PREEMPT_RT had been enabled in the last round of
> UAF in that area back in early April...
> 
> As far as I'm concerned, we *do* need to keep RCU read-side critical area
> all the way until the end of spin_unlock(); it very well might be the
> only thing to prevent freeing the sucker under us.


Sorry for late reply, but I think it was not enabled in those kernels.
This was in the mail that I sent on April 10th:

# zgrep PREEMPT /proc/config.gz
CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE_BUILD=y
CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_PREEMPT_LAZY=y
CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE=y
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_LAZY is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_DYNAMIC is not set
CONFIG_HAVE_PREEMPT_DYNAMIC=y
CONFIG_HAVE_PREEMPT_DYNAMIC_CALL=y
CONFIG_PREEMPT_NOTIFIERS=y
# CONFIG_PREEMPTIRQ_DELAY_TEST is not set

-- 
Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>