linux-kernel - [PATCH 1/4] cgroup: Eliminate cgrp_ancestor_storage in cgroup

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20251217162744.352391-2-mkoutny@suse.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:27:33 +0100
From: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>
To: cgroups@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>,
	"Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@...eddedor.com>,
	David Laight <david.laight.linux@...il.com>,
	Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>,
	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
Subject: [PATCH 1/4] cgroup: Eliminate cgrp_ancestor_storage in cgroup_root

The cgrp_ancestor_storage has two drawbacks:
- it's not guaranteed that the member immediately follows struct cgrp in
  cgroup_root (root cgroup's ancestors[0] might thus point to a padding
  and not in cgrp_ancestor_storage proper),
- this idiom raises warnings with -Wflex-array-member-not-at-end.

Instead of relying on the auxiliary member in cgroup_root, define the
0-th level ancestor inside struct cgroup (needed for static allocation
of cgrp_dfl_root), deeper cgroups would allocate flexible
_low_ancestors[].  Unionized alias through ancestors[] will
transparently join the two ranges (ancestors is wrapped in a struct to
avoid 'error: flexible array member in union').

The above change would still leave the flexible array at the end of
struct cgroup, so move cgrp also towards the end of cgroup_root to
resolve the -Wflex-array-member-not-at-end.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/5fb74444-2fbb-476e-b1bf-3f3e279d0ced@embeddedor.com/
Reported-by: "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@...eddedor.com>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/r/b3eb050d-9451-4b60-b06c-ace7dab57497@embeddedor.com/
Cc: David Laight <david.laight.linux@...il.com>
Signed-off-by: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>
---
 include/linux/cgroup-defs.h | 28 +++++++++++++++++-----------
 kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c      |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
index b760a3c470a56..9247e437da5ce 100644
--- a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
+++ b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
@@ -626,7 +626,16 @@ struct cgroup {
 #endif
 
 	/* All ancestors including self */
-	struct cgroup *ancestors[];
+	union {
+		struct {
+			void *_sentinel[0]; /* XXX to avoid 'flexible array member in a struct with no named members' */
+			struct cgroup *ancestors[];
+		};
+		struct {
+			struct cgroup *_root_ancestor;
+			struct cgroup *_low_ancestors[];
+		};
+	};
 };
 
 /*
@@ -647,16 +656,6 @@ struct cgroup_root {
 	struct list_head root_list;
 	struct rcu_head rcu;	/* Must be near the top */
 
-	/*
-	 * The root cgroup. The containing cgroup_root will be destroyed on its
-	 * release. cgrp->ancestors[0] will be used overflowing into the
-	 * following field. cgrp_ancestor_storage must immediately follow.
-	 */
-	struct cgroup cgrp;
-
-	/* must follow cgrp for cgrp->ancestors[0], see above */
-	struct cgroup *cgrp_ancestor_storage;
-
 	/* Number of cgroups in the hierarchy, used only for /proc/cgroups */
 	atomic_t nr_cgrps;
 
@@ -668,6 +667,13 @@ struct cgroup_root {
 
 	/* The name for this hierarchy - may be empty */
 	char name[MAX_CGROUP_ROOT_NAMELEN];
+
+	/*
+	 * The root cgroup. The containing cgroup_root will be destroyed on its
+	 * release. This must be embedded last due to flexible array at the end
+	 * of struct cgroup.
+	 */
+	struct cgroup cgrp;
 };
 
 /*
diff --git a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
index e717208cfb185..554a02ee298ba 100644
--- a/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
+++ b/kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c
@@ -5847,7 +5847,7 @@ static struct cgroup *cgroup_create(struct cgroup *parent, const char *name,
 	int ret;
 
 	/* allocate the cgroup and its ID, 0 is reserved for the root */
-	cgrp = kzalloc(struct_size(cgrp, ancestors, (level + 1)), GFP_KERNEL);
+	cgrp = kzalloc(struct_size(cgrp, _low_ancestors, level), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!cgrp)
 		return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
 
-- 
2.52.0