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Etienne Perot 8e35992021 cgroup: fix spurious SIGKILL of CLONE_INTO_CGROUP children
Since commit b69bb476de ("cgroup: fix race between fork and
cgroup.kill"), the fork path snapshots the kill_seq of the child's
future cgroup into kargs->kill_seq, and cgroup_post_fork() SIGKILLs
the child if that cgroup's kill_seq has changed in the meantime, to
catch forks racing with a cgroup.kill sweep.

For CLONE_INTO_CGROUP, however, the snapshot in cgroup_css_set_fork()
is taken before the target cgroup has been resolved: kargs->cgrp is
always NULL at this point (it is only set at the end of the function).
So the "if (kargs->cgrp)" branch is dead code and the snapshot always
records the kill_seq of the parent's cgroup. cgroup_post_fork() then
compares it with the kill_seq of the target cgroup, so the child gets
SIGKILLed whenever the two cgroups have been killed a different number
of times.

As a result, once cgroup.kill has been written to a cgroup, every
child subsequently cloned into it with clone3(CLONE_INTO_CGROUP) is
killed on the spot, for as long as the cgroup exists: kill_seq is not
exposed to userspace and never resets.

Re-snapshot kill_seq from the target cgroup once it has been resolved,
and drop the dead branch at the early snapshot site.

This does not reopen the race fixed by b69bb476de. For
CLONE_INTO_CGROUP, everything from the snapshot to the check in
cgroup_post_fork() runs with cgroup_mutex held, and kill_seq is
only ever incremented under cgroup_mutex.

tj: Updated the comment above kill_seq to reflect the new serialization
rules as suggested by Shakeel Butt.

Fixes: b69bb476de ("cgroup: fix race between fork and cgroup.kill")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@linux.dev>
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Etienne Perot <eperot@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
2026-08-31 06:19:38 -10:00
arch - Prevent NULL dereference on theoretical missing IO bitmap 2026-06-23 17:16:31 -07:00
block - small cleanups in dm-vdo, dm-raid, dm-cache, dm-zoned-metadata 2026-06-16 13:20:54 +05:30
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
Documentation docs: cgroup-v2: fix misc.events key format description 2026-08-24 06:55:59 -10:00
drivers Miscellaneous irqchip driver fixes: 2026-06-23 16:02:03 -07:00
fs Changes for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-24 10:05:53 -07:00
include cgroup: fix spurious SIGKILL of CLONE_INTO_CGROUP children 2026-08-31 06:19:38 -10:00
init mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
io_uring for-7.2/io_uring-epoll-20260616 2026-06-18 08:09:57 -07:00
ipc kernel-7.2-rc1.misc 2026-06-15 03:05:50 +05:30
kernel cgroup: fix spurious SIGKILL of CLONE_INTO_CGROUP children 2026-08-31 06:19:38 -10:00
lib Misc fixes: 2026-06-23 16:05:54 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm mm.git review status for linus..mm-stable 2026-06-23 12:03:44 -07:00
net NFS Client Updates for Linux 7.2 2026-06-23 18:36:41 -07:00
rust Char/Misc/IIO/FPGA/GPIB/etc driver updates for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:20:21 -07:00
samples Char/Misc/IIO/FPGA/GPIB/etc driver updates for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:20:21 -07:00
scripts platform-drivers-x86 for v7.2-1 2026-06-23 08:31:33 -07:00
security Landlock update for v7.2-rc1 2026-06-19 12:20:25 -07:00
sound dmaengine updates for v7.2 2026-06-23 15:51:14 -07:00
tools selftests/cgroup: Add test for preserving boot-isolated CPUs 2026-08-24 07:01:44 -10:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt Arm: 2026-06-19 08:56:49 -07:00
.clang-format clang-format: fix formatting of guard() and scoped_guard() statements 2026-05-28 21:24:41 -07:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS dmaengine updates for v7.2 2026-06-23 15:51:14 -07:00
Makefile SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst