]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/linux.git/commit
kthread: Warn if mm_struct lacks user_ns in kthread_use_mm()
authorBreno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Tue, 23 Dec 2025 10:55:44 +0000 (02:55 -0800)
committerArd Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
Wed, 24 Dec 2025 20:32:58 +0000 (21:32 +0100)
commitcfe54f4591e675cedf2c0d25287ff4c0a2e0cb9d
tree5db98f0768ffa7e81296e52be68bb409b9331570
parent61ed08c2fd1db0eb43c8b62ade249a3061e39444
kthread: Warn if mm_struct lacks user_ns in kthread_use_mm()

Add a WARN_ON_ONCE() check to detect mm_struct instances that are
missing user_ns initialization when passed to kthread_use_mm().

When a kthread adopts an mm via kthread_use_mm(), LSM hooks and
capability checks may access current->mm->user_ns for credential
validation. If user_ns is NULL, this leads to a NULL pointer
dereference crash.

This was observed with efi_mm on arm64, where commit a5baf582f4c0
("arm64/efi: Call EFI runtime services without disabling preemption")
introduced kthread_use_mm(&efi_mm), but efi_mm lacked user_ns
initialization, causing crashes during /proc access.

Adding this warning helps catch similar bugs early during development
rather than waiting for hard-to-debug NULL pointer crashes in
production.

Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Rik van Riel <riel@surriel.com>
Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
kernel/kthread.c