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Steven Rostedt 5aac392fcd perf: sched: Fix perf crash with new is_user_task() helper
[ Upstream commit 76ed27608f ]

In order to do a user space stacktrace the current task needs to be a user
task that has executed in user space. It use to be possible to test if a
task is a user task or not by simply checking the task_struct mm field. If
it was non NULL, it was a user task and if not it was a kernel task.

But things have changed over time, and some kernel tasks now have their
own mm field.

An idea was made to instead test PF_KTHREAD and two functions were used to
wrap this check in case it became more complex to test if a task was a
user task or not[1]. But this was rejected and the C code simply checked
the PF_KTHREAD directly.

It was later found that not all kernel threads set PF_KTHREAD. The io-uring
helpers instead set PF_USER_WORKER and this needed to be added as well.

But checking the flags is still not enough. There's a very small window
when a task exits that it frees its mm field and it is set back to NULL.
If perf were to trigger at this moment, the flags test would say its a
user space task but when perf would read the mm field it would crash with
at NULL pointer dereference.

Now there are flags that can be used to test if a task is exiting, but
they are set in areas that perf may still want to profile the user space
task (to see where it exited). The only real test is to check both the
flags and the mm field.

Instead of making this modification in every location, create a new
is_user_task() helper function that does all the tests needed to know if
it is safe to read the user space memory or not.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250425204120.639530125@goodmis.org/

Fixes: 90942f9fac ("perf: Use current->flags & PF_KTHREAD|PF_USER_WORKER instead of current->mm == NULL")
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/0d877e6f-41a7-4724-875d-0b0a27b8a545@roeck-us.net/
Reported-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Tested-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260129102821.46484722@gandalf.local.home
Signed-off-by: Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
History 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
arch pinctrl: qcom: sm8350-lpass-lpi: Merge with SC7280 to fix I2S2 and SWR TX pins 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
block block: fix NULL pointer dereference in blk_zone_reset_all_bio_endio() 2026-01-08 10:15:06 +01:00
certs sign-file,extract-cert: use pkcs11 provider for OPENSSL MAJOR >= 3 2024-09-20 19:52:48 +03:00
crypto crypto: authencesn - reject too-short AAD (assoclen<8) to match ESP/ESN spec 2026-01-30 10:28:39 +01:00
Documentation fou: Don't allow 0 for FOU_ATTR_IPPROTO. 2026-01-30 10:28:39 +01:00
drivers pinctrl: qcom: sm8350-lpass-lpi: Merge with SC7280 to fix I2S2 and SWR TX pins 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
fs btrfs: prevent use-after-free on folio private data in btrfs_subpage_clear_uptodate() 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
include perf: sched: Fix perf crash with new is_user_task() helper 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
init init: handle bootloader identifier in kernel parameters 2025-10-19 16:33:50 +02:00
io_uring io_uring/io-wq: check IO_WQ_BIT_EXIT inside work run loop 2026-01-30 10:28:41 +01:00
ipc ipc: fix to protect IPCS lookups using RCU 2025-06-27 11:11:22 +01:00
kernel perf: sched: Fix perf crash with new is_user_task() helper 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
lib flex_proportions: make fprop_new_period() hardirq safe 2026-02-06 16:55:46 +01:00
LICENSES LICENSES: add 0BSD license text 2024-09-01 20:43:24 -07:00
mm mm/kfence: randomize the freelist on initialization 2026-02-06 16:55:49 +01:00
net mptcp: avoid dup SUB_CLOSED events after disconnect 2026-02-06 16:55:50 +01:00
rust rust: rbtree: fix documentation typo in CursorMut peek_next method 2026-02-06 16:55:44 +01:00
samples samples/ftrace: Adjust LoongArch register restore order in direct calls 2026-01-08 10:14:50 +01:00
scripts scripts: generate_rust_analyzer: Add compiler_builtins -> core dep 2026-02-06 16:55:47 +01:00
security keys/trusted_keys: fix handle passed to tpm_buf_append_name during unseal 2026-01-30 10:28:44 +01:00
sound ASoC: amd: yc: Add DMI quirk for Acer TravelMate P216-41-TCO 2026-02-06 16:55:45 +01:00
tools libbpf: Fix -Wdiscarded-qualifiers under C23 2026-02-06 16:55:49 +01:00
usr kbuild: uapi: Strip comments before size type check 2025-11-13 15:34:35 -05:00
virt KVM: Disallow toggling KVM_MEM_GUEST_MEMFD on an existing memslot 2026-01-08 10:14:21 +01:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update with v6.11-rc1's for_each macro list 2024-08-02 13:20:31 +02:00
.clippy.toml rust: give Clippy the minimum supported Rust version 2025-08-01 09:48:44 +01:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig .editorconfig: remove trim_trailing_whitespace option 2024-06-13 16:47:52 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore Add Jeff Kirsher to .get_maintainer.ignore 2024-03-08 11:36:54 +00:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore rust: introduce .clippy.toml 2025-03-13 13:01:42 +01:00
.mailmap mailmap: add entry for Thorsten Blum 2024-11-07 14:14:59 -08:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: Remove self from DSA entry 2024-11-03 12:52:38 -08:00
Kbuild Kbuild updates for v6.1 2022-10-10 12:00:45 -07:00
Kconfig kbuild: ensure full rebuild when the compiler is updated 2020-05-12 13:28:33 +09:00
MAINTAINERS staging: rtl8712: Remove driver using deprecated API wext 2025-12-07 06:25:02 +09:00
Makefile Linux 6.12.68 2026-01-30 10:28:49 +01:00
README README: Fix spelling 2024-03-18 03:36:32 -06:00

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 reStructuredText 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.