linux/include
Nickolai Zeldovich 28d2905d77
exit: fix lost-update race on the child_subreaper bitfields
is_child_subreaper, has_child_subreaper, autoreap and, with
CONFIG_POSIX_TIMERS=y, timer_create_restore_ids are 1-bit fields that
share one memory location in struct signal_struct.  A store to any of
them is a read-modify-write of the whole word, and three of the stores
run without a common lock:

  - PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER writes me->signal->is_child_subreaper with
    no lock held.

  - propagate_has_child_subreaper(), run by walk_process_tree() from
    the same prctl in an ancestor, writes p->signal->has_child_subreaper
    of every descendant p under read_lock(&tasklist_lock), which does
    not exclude the other writers.

  - PR_TIMER_CREATE_RESTORE_IDS writes
    current->signal->timer_create_restore_ids with no lock held.

When a process calls prctl(PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER, 1) while an
ancestor's PR_SET_CHILD_SUBREAPER walk visits it, or while another
thread of the same process calls prctl(PR_TIMER_CREATE_RESTORE_IDS),
the read-modify-write sequences interleave and one of the bits is
silently lost:

  - If has_child_subreaper is lost, the process's orphaned descendants
    are reparented straight to init when it exits: find_new_reaper()
    tests father->signal->has_child_subreaper first and never looks for
    the ancestor subreaper.  The service manager that registered as the
    subreaper never gets SIGCHLD for them and cannot wait() on them.

  - If is_child_subreaper is lost, the prctl returned 0 but the process
    is not a subreaper: orphans of its descendants skip it and are
    reparented to the next subreaper up or to init.
    PR_GET_CHILD_SUBREAPER reads back 0.

  - If timer_create_restore_ids is lost, the prctl returned 0 but
    timer_create() does not restore the requested timer ids (or keeps
    restoring them after _OFF), and _GET reads back the old value.

Documentation/memory-barriers.txt requires all fields of one bitfield
to be protected by one lock for exactly this reason.  No lock is taken
or documented for these flags, and the prctls need no privilege, so any
process can hit the race against its own ancestors or descendants, or
between two of its own threads.

Make is_child_subreaper and has_child_subreaper separate bool members.
Each store then has its own memory location and no read-modify-write
of a neighbour.  The readers and their locking are unchanged.

autoreap stays a bit-field and so shares a memory location only with
timer_create_restore_ids.  That pair is race-free: autoreap is stored
exactly once, in copy_process() before the new signal_struct is
reachable by any other task, and timer_create_restore_ids is only
stored to the signal_struct of an already running process.

Fixes: 749860ce24 ("prctl: propagate has_child_subreaper flag to every descendant")
Signed-off-by: Nickolai Zeldovich <nickolai@csail.mit.edu>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261011123440.768054-1-nickolai@csail.mit.edu
Acked-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
2026-10-14 22:08:02 +02:00
..
acpi
asm-generic
clocksource
crypto
cxl
drm
dt-bindings
hyperv
keys keys: translate request_key_auth pid for the reading procfs instance 2026-09-12 00:43:45 +03:00
kunit
kvm
linux exit: fix lost-update race on the child_subreaper bitfields 2026-10-14 22:08:02 +02:00
math-emu
media media: hevc: add bounded tile-count helpers 2026-09-07 09:01:05 +02:00
memory
misc
net ipv4: validate checksum_start before completing checksum 2026-10-08 11:03:47 -07:00
pcmcia
ras
rdma
rv
scsi
soc
sound ASoC: cs35l56: Add DAI for SDCA OT25 stream 2026-10-07 13:20:05 +02:00
target
trace Landlock fix for v7.3-rc5 2026-09-24 10:53:59 -07:00
uapi Random number generator fixes for Linux 7.3-rc6. 2026-10-02 11:28:45 -07:00
ufs
vdso random: vDSO: fix repeated word 'to' in comment 2026-09-16 11:51:39 +02:00
video
xen
Kbuild