linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] slab: fix kmalloc_nolock() context check for PREEMPT

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Message-ID: <20260113150639.48407-1-swarajgaikwad1925@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:36:39 +0530
From: Swaraj Gaikwad <swarajgaikwad1925@...il.com>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Christoph Lameter <cl@...two.org>,
	David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
	Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@...ux.dev>,
	Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@...cle.com>,
	Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>,
	Clark Williams <clrkwllms@...nel.org>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
	linux-mm@...ck.org (open list:SLAB ALLOCATOR),
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org (open list),
	linux-rt-devel@...ts.linux.dev (open list:Real-time Linux (PREEMPT_RT):Keyword:PREEMPT_RT)
Cc: skhan@...uxfoundation.org,
	david.hunter.linux@...il.com,
	Swaraj Gaikwad <swarajgaikwad1925@...il.com>,
	syzbot+b1546ad4a95331b2101e@...kaller.appspotmail.com
Subject: [PATCH v2] slab: fix kmalloc_nolock() context check for PREEMPT_RT

On PREEMPT_RT kernels, local_lock becomes a sleeping lock. The current
check in kmalloc_nolock() only verifies we're not in NMI or hard IRQ
context, but misses the case where preemption is disabled.

When a BPF program runs from a tracepoint with preemption disabled
(preempt_count > 0), kmalloc_nolock() proceeds to call
local_lock_irqsave() which attempts to acquire a sleeping lock,
triggering:

  BUG: sleeping function called from invalid context
  in_atomic(): 1, irqs_disabled(): 0, non_block: 0, pid: 6128
  preempt_count: 2, expected: 0

Fix this by checking !preemptible() on PREEMPT_RT, which directly
expresses the constraint that we cannot take a sleeping lock when
preemption is disabled. This encompasses the previous checks for NMI
and hard IRQ contexts while also catching cases where preemption is
disabled.

Fixes: af92793e52c3 ("slab: Introduce kmalloc_nolock() and kfree_nolock().")
Reported-by: syzbot+b1546ad4a95331b2101e@...kaller.appspotmail.com
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=b1546ad4a95331b2101e
Signed-off-by: Swaraj Gaikwad <swarajgaikwad1925@...il.com>
---
Changes in v2:
- Simplified condition from (in_nmi() || in_hardirq() || preempt_count())
  to !preemptible() as suggested by Luis Claudio R. Goncalves and agreed
  by Vlastimil Babka
- Updated comment to reflect the more descriptive check

Tested by building with syz config and running the syzbot
reproducer - kernel no longer crashes.

 mm/slub.c | 8 ++++++--
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index 2acce22590f8..642f4744d5c6 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -5689,8 +5689,12 @@ void *kmalloc_nolock_noprof(size_t size, gfp_t gfp_flags, int node)
 	if (unlikely(!size))
 		return ZERO_SIZE_PTR;

-	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT) && (in_nmi() || in_hardirq()))
-		/* kmalloc_nolock() in PREEMPT_RT is not supported from irq */
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT) && !preemptible())
+		/*
+		 * kmalloc_nolock() in PREEMPT_RT is not supported from
+		 * non-preemptible context because local_lock becomes a
+		 * sleeping lock on RT.
+		 */
 		return NULL;
 retry:
 	if (unlikely(size > KMALLOC_MAX_CACHE_SIZE))

base-commit: 559e608c46553c107dbba19dae0854af7b219400
--
2.52.0