linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] cgroup: Eliminate cgrp_ancestor_storage in cgroup

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Message-ID: <20260107165942.95340-1-mkoutny@suse.com>
Date: Wed,  7 Jan 2026 17:59:41 +0100
From: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>
To: cgroups@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>,
	"Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@...eddedor.com>,
	David Laight <david.laight.linux@...il.com>,
	"Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavoars@...nel.org>,
	Tejun Heo <tj@...nel.org>,
	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>,
	Kees Cook <kees@...nel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v2] 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.

The above change would still leave the flexible array at the end of
struct cgroup inside cgroup_root, 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>
Acked-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavoars@...nel.org>
Signed-off-by: Michal Koutný <mkoutny@...e.com>
---
 include/linux/cgroup-defs.h | 25 ++++++++++++++-----------
 kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c      |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

Changes from v1 (https://lore.kernel.org/r/20251217162744.352391-1-mkoutny@suse.com
- drop __counted_by patches (2--4), too intrusive rework (Michal)
- utilize DECLARE_FLEX_ARRAY (Gustavo)
- trailers

diff --git a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
index b760a3c470a56..f7cc60de00583 100644
--- a/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
+++ b/include/linux/cgroup-defs.h
@@ -626,7 +626,13 @@ struct cgroup {
 #endif
 
 	/* All ancestors including self */
-	struct cgroup *ancestors[];
+	union {
+		DECLARE_FLEX_ARRAY(struct cgroup *, ancestors);
+		struct {
+			struct cgroup *_root_ancestor;
+			DECLARE_FLEX_ARRAY(struct cgroup *, _low_ancestors);
+		};
+	};
 };
 
 /*
@@ -647,16 +653,6 @@ 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 +664,13 @@ 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