If kthread_is_per_cpu runs concurrently with free_kthread_struct the kthread_struct that was just freed may be read from. This bug was introduced by commit 40966e316f86 ("kthread: Ensure struct kthread is present for all kthreads"). When kthread_struct started to be allocated for all tasks that have PF_KTHREAD set. This in turn required the kthread_struct to be freed in kernel_execve and violated the assumption that kthread_struct will have the same lifetime as the task. Looking a bit deeper this only applies to callers of kernel_execve which is just the init process and the user mode helper processes. These processes really don't want to be kernel threads but are for historical reasons. Mostly that copy_thread does not know how to take a kernel mode function to the process with for processes without PF_KTHREAD or PF_IO_WORKER set. Solve this by not allocating kthread_struct for the init process and the user mode helper processes. This is done by adding a kthread member to struct kernel_clone_args. Setting kthread in fork_idle and kernel_thread. Adding user_mode_thread that works like kernel_thread except it does not set kthread. In fork only allocating the kthread_struct if .kthread is set. I have looked at kernel/kthread.c and since commit 40966e316f86 ("kthread: Ensure struct kthread is present for all kthreads") there have been no assumptions added that to_kthread or __to_kthread will not return NULL. There are a few callers of to_kthread or __to_kthread that assume a non-NULL struct kthread pointer will be returned. These functions are kthread_data(), kthread_parmme(), kthread_exit(), kthread(), kthread_park(), kthread_unpark(), kthread_stop(). All of those functions can reasonably expected to be called when it is know that a task is a kthread so that assumption seems reasonable. Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org Fixes: 40966e316f86 ("kthread: Ensure struct kthread is present for all kthreads") Reported-by: Максим Кутявин <maximkabox13@gmail.com> Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20220506141512.516114-1-ebiederm@xmission.com Signed-off-by: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Linux kernel ============ There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first. In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/ There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory, several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation. Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.
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