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 04/10] stacktrace: Don't unwind the user stack without an mm
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:52:20 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261026215226.3713941-5-jthoughton@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261026215226.3713941-1-jthoughton@google.com>
stack_trace_save_user() only refuses to unwind the user stack of tasks
with PF_KTHREAD set. That doesn't cover all tasks without an mm:
- A user task that has already gone through exit_mm(), e.g. when an
event fires from exit_files(), exit_task_work() or the final context
switch in do_exit().
- PID 1 before it execs init, and usermode helper children before they
exec, which are created with user_mode_thread() and don't have
PF_KTHREAD set. E.g. booting with trace_options=userstacktrace and
an event enabled with trace_event= unwinds PID 1's "user stack"
during initcalls.
With the ftrace userstacktrace option enabled, the architecture
unwinders then read the user stack without an mm. That access does not
reliably fail: the user half of the address space belongs to whatever
mm happens to be lazily loaded, if any, so the unwinder may read
another task's memory.
Use is_user_task() instead, which also checks current->mm, as perf
already does for the same reason since commit 76ed27608f7d ("perf:
sched: Fix perf crash with new is_user_task() helper"). This also stops
unwinding the user stack of PF_USER_WORKER threads, which never run in
user space, matching perf.
Fixes: 214d8ca6ee85 ("stacktrace: Provide common infrastructure")
Signed-off-by: James Houghton <jthoughton@google.com>
---
kernel/stacktrace.c | 8 ++++++--
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/stacktrace.c b/kernel/stacktrace.c
index afb3c116da91..f96a5ec12f6c 100644
--- a/kernel/stacktrace.c
+++ b/kernel/stacktrace.c
@@ -228,8 +228,12 @@ unsigned int stack_trace_save_user(unsigned long *store, unsigned int size)
.size = size,
};
- /* Trace user stack if not a kernel thread */
- if (current->flags & PF_KTHREAD)
+ /*
+ * Trace user stack only if this is a user task that still has an mm,
+ * i.e. not a kernel thread or user worker, and not a task that has
+ * already gone through exit_mm().
+ */
+ if (!is_user_task(current))
return 0;
arch_stack_walk_user(consume_entry, &c, task_pt_regs(current));
--
2.56.0.307.g5fe7bd680c-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-10-26 21:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ 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 when current->mm is NULL 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 ` James Houghton [this message]
2026-10-26 22:30 ` [RFC PATCH 04/10] stacktrace: Don't unwind the user stack without an mm 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 ` [RFC PATCH 07/10] uaccess: Fail user nofault helpers quietly " James Houghton
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
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20261026215226.3713941-5-jthoughton@google.com \
--to=jthoughton@google.com \
--cc=James.Bottomley@HansenPartnership.com \
--cc=acme@kernel.org \
--cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=arnd@arndb.de \
--cc=asml.silence@gmail.com \
--cc=ast@kernel.org \
--cc=axboe@kernel.dk \
--cc=bpf@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=daniel@iogearbox.net \
--cc=david@kernel.org \
--cc=dsterba@suse.com \
--cc=io-uring@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=jmattson@google.com \
--cc=john.fastabend@gmail.com \
--cc=jpoimboe@kernel.org \
--cc=kees@kernel.org \
--cc=kvm@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=liam@infradead.org \
--cc=linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
--cc=linux-perf-users@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=ljs@kernel.org \
--cc=mason@kernel.org \
--cc=mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com \
--cc=mhiramat@kernel.org \
--cc=mhocko@suse.com \
--cc=mingo@redhat.com \
--cc=mkp@kernel.org \
--cc=namhyung@kernel.org \
--cc=pbonzini@redhat.com \
--cc=peterz@infradead.org \
--cc=rostedt@goodmis.org \
--cc=rppt@kernel.org \
--cc=seanjc@google.com \
--cc=surenb@google.com \
--cc=tglx@kernel.org \
--cc=vbabka@kernel.org \
--cc=viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox