exec: free the old mm outside the exec locks
exec_mmap() installs the new mm and then tears the old one down while
still holding exec_update_lock for writing -- and with cred_guard_mutex
held all the way to setup_new_exec():
setmax_mm_hiwater_rss(&tsk->signal->maxrss, old_mm);
mm_update_next_owner(old_mm);
mmput(old_mm);
Neither lock is needed for this. exec_update_lock only exists to make the
mm swap atomic with the later commit_creds(), so that permission-checking
readers (proc, ptrace, the futex robust list, perf, kcmp, mm_access())
never observe the new mm together with the old credentials. Those readers
all operate on task->mm, i.e. the new mm after the swap; none looks at the
detached old mm, its ->owner or signal->maxrss. cred_guard_mutex guards
credential calculation and is equally irrelevant here.
The cost is real: __mmput() runs exit_mmap() over the entire old address
space and can block in exit_aio() waiting for in-flight AIO, all while
holding exec_update_lock for writing and cred_guard_mutex. For execve() of
a large process this blocks ptrace_attach() and every exec_update_lock
reader for the duration of the teardown.
Stash the old mm in bprm->old_mm and release it from setup_new_exec()
after both locks are dropped. setup_new_exec() still runs before
setup_arg_pages() and the segment mappings, so the old address space is
freed before the new one is populated and peak memory is unchanged. The
ordering constraints are kept: old_mm's mmap_lock is still dropped in
exec_mmap() before mm_update_next_owner() (required since commit
31a78f23bac0 ("mm owner: fix race between swapoff and exit")), and
mm_update_next_owner() still precedes mmput(); both run in the execing
task's context, as mm_update_next_owner() requires.
If exec swaps the mm but fails before setup_new_exec() runs the old mm
would leak, so add a backstop in free_bprm(). The lazy-tlb case
(old_mm == NULL, e.g. kernel_execve()) has no address space to
free and is left in exec_mmap().
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260522-work-exit_mm-v1-1-bd32d5a560bb@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>