linux-kernel - [PATCH v2 1/1] mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler

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Message-ID: <20251031120955.92116-1-lance.yang@linux.dev>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2025 20:09:55 +0800
From: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
To: akpm@...ux-foundation.org
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-mm@...ck.org,
	lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com,
	rppt@...nel.org,
	willy@...radead.org,
	david@...hat.com,
	ioworker0@...il.com,
	big-sleep-vuln-reports@...gle.com,
	stable@...r.kernel.org,
	Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
Subject: [PATCH v2 1/1] mm/secretmem: fix use-after-free race in fault handler

From: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>

When a page fault occurs in a secret memory file created with
`memfd_secret(2)`, the kernel will allocate a new folio for it, mark the
underlying page as not-present in the direct map, and add it to the file
mapping.

If two tasks cause a fault in the same page concurrently, both could end
up allocating a folio and removing the page from the direct map, but only
one would succeed in adding the folio to the file mapping. The task that
failed undoes the effects of its attempt by (a) freeing the folio again
and (b) putting the page back into the direct map. However, by doing
these two operations in this order, the page becomes available to the
allocator again before it is placed back in the direct mapping.

If another task attempts to allocate the page between (a) and (b), and
the kernel tries to access it via the direct map, it would result in a
supervisor not-present page fault.

Fix the ordering to restore the direct map before the folio is freed.

Cc: <stable@...r.kernel.org>
Fixes: 1507f51255c9 ("mm: introduce memfd_secret system call to create "secret" memory areas")
Reported-by: Google Big Sleep <big-sleep-vuln-reports@...gle.com>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/CAEXGt5QeDpiHTu3K9tvjUTPqo+d-=wuCNYPa+6sWKrdQJ-ATdg@mail.gmail.com/
Acked-by: David Hildenbrand <david@...hat.com>
Reviewed-by: Mike Rapoport (Microsoft) <rppt@...nel.org>
Reviewed-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>
Signed-off-by: Lance Yang <lance.yang@...ux.dev>
---
v1 -> v2:
 - Collect Reviewed-by from Mike and Lorenzo - thanks!
 - Collect Acked-by from David - thanks!
 - Update the changelog as Mike suggested
 - https://lore.kernel.org/linux-mm/aQSIdCpf-2pJLwAF@kernel.org/

 mm/secretmem.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/mm/secretmem.c b/mm/secretmem.c
index c1bd9a4b663d..37f6d1097853 100644
--- a/mm/secretmem.c
+++ b/mm/secretmem.c
@@ -82,13 +82,13 @@ static vm_fault_t secretmem_fault(struct vm_fault *vmf)
 		__folio_mark_uptodate(folio);
 		err = filemap_add_folio(mapping, folio, offset, gfp);
 		if (unlikely(err)) {
-			folio_put(folio);
 			/*
 			 * If a split of large page was required, it
 			 * already happened when we marked the page invalid
 			 * which guarantees that this call won't fail
 			 */
 			set_direct_map_default_noflush(folio_page(folio, 0));
+			folio_put(folio);
 			if (err == -EEXIST)
 				goto retry;

-- 
2.49.0