From: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>,
Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@oracle.com>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>, Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>,
Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@nvidia.com>,
Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>,
Boqun Feng <boqun@kernel.org>,
Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@gmail.com>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>,
Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@gmail.com>,
Zqiang <qiang.zhang@linux.dev>,
Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com>,
rcu@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
Subject: [PATCH] slab,rcu: disable KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED for strict grace period
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:35:12 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260324-kasan-kfree-rcu-v1-1-ac58a7a13d03@google.com> (raw)
Disable CONFIG_KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED in CONFIG_RCU_STRICT_GRACE_PERIOD builds
so that kernel fuzzers have an easier time finding use-after-free involving
kfree_rcu().
The intent behind CONFIG_RCU_STRICT_GRACE_PERIOD is that RCU should invoke
callbacks and free objects as soon as possible (at a large performance
cost) so that kernel fuzzers and such have an easier time detecting
use-after-free bugs in objects with RCU lifetime.
CONFIG_KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED is a performance optimization that queues
RCU-freed objects in ways that CONFIG_RCU_STRICT_GRACE_PERIOD can't
expedite; for example, the following testcase doesn't trigger a KASAN splat
when CONFIG_KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED is enabled:
```
struct foo_struct {
struct rcu_head rcu;
int a;
};
struct foo_struct *foo = kmalloc(sizeof(*foo),
GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_NOFAIL | __GFP_ZERO);
pr_info("%s: calling kfree_rcu()\n", __func__);
kfree_rcu(foo, rcu);
msleep(10);
pr_info("%s: start UAF access\n", __func__);
READ_ONCE(foo->a);
pr_info("%s: end UAF access\n", __func__);
```
Signed-off-by: Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
---
mm/Kconfig | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
diff --git a/mm/Kconfig b/mm/Kconfig
index ebd8ea353687..67a72fe89186 100644
--- a/mm/Kconfig
+++ b/mm/Kconfig
@@ -172,6 +172,7 @@ config SLUB
config KVFREE_RCU_BATCHED
def_bool y
depends on !SLUB_TINY && !TINY_RCU
+ depends on !RCU_STRICT_GRACE_PERIOD
config SLUB_TINY
bool "Configure for minimal memory footprint"
---
base-commit: b29fb8829bff243512bb8c8908fd39406f9fd4c3
change-id: 20260324-kasan-kfree-rcu-4e7f490237ef
--
Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>
next reply other threads:[~2026-03-24 21:35 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-03-24 21:35 Jann Horn [this message]
2026-03-25 3:00 ` David Rientjes
2026-03-25 3:02 ` Joel Fernandes
2026-03-25 5:54 ` Harry Yoo (Oracle)
2026-03-25 7:50 ` Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-03-25 8:21 ` Harry Yoo (Oracle)
2026-03-25 8:34 ` Vlastimil Babka (SUSE)
2026-03-25 8:41 ` Harry Yoo (Oracle)
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