[PATCH 1/2] audit: fix recursive locking deadlock in audit_dupe_exe()
From: Ricardo Robaina
Date: Tue Apr 14 2026 - 16:01:51 EST
A deadlock occurs in the audit subsystem when duplicating
executable-related rules.
When a file is moved (e.g., via do_renameat2()), the VFS layer locks
the parent directory (I_MUTEX_PARENT), which synchronously triggers an
fsnotify_move event. If an existing executable audit rule matches the
file being moved, the audit subsystem catches this event and calls
audit_dupe_exe() to duplicate the watch and update the rule. Then,
audit_alloc_mark() would call kern_path_parent() to resolve the path,
leading to a blind attempt to acquire the exact same I_MUTEX_PARENT lock
already held by the task, resulting in the following recursive locking
deadlock:
[ 60.521149] ============================================
[ 60.521164] WARNING: possible recursive locking detected
[ 60.521180] 6.12.0-55.27.1.el10_0.x86_64+debug #1 Not tainted
[ 60.521197] --------------------------------------------
[ 60.521211] mv/5099 is trying to acquire lock:
[ 60.521225] ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: __kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0
[ 60.521263]
but task is already holding lock:
[ 60.521280] ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0
[ 60.521313]
other info that might help us debug this:
[ 60.521331] Possible unsafe locking scenario:
[ 60.521349] CPU0
[ 60.521357] ----
[ 60.521365] lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1);
[ 60.521384] lock(&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1);
[ 60.521401]
*** DEADLOCK ***
[ 60.521422] May be due to missing lock nesting notation
[ 60.521445] 6 locks held by mv/5099:
[ 60.521458] #0: ffff888112a9c440 (sb_writers#13){++++}-{0:0}, at: do_renameat2+0x34c/0xbc0
[ 60.521491] #1: ffff888112a9c790 (&type->s_vfs_rename_key#3){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: do_renameat2+0x415/0xbc0
[ 60.521525] #2: ffff888132846b58 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/1){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: lock_two_directories+0x13f/0x2b0
[ 60.521565] #3: ffff888132845358 (&inode->i_sb->s_type->i_mutex_dir_key/5){+.+.}-{3:3},
at: lock_two_directories+0x175/0x2b0
[ 60.521604] #4: ffffffffb3a1fb10 (&fsnotify_mark_srcu){.+.+}-{0:0}, at: fsnotify+0x454/0x28a0
[ 60.521636] #5: ffffffffaf886230 (audit_filter_mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: audit_update_watch+0x36/0x11e0
[ 60.521670]
stack backtrace:
[ 60.521687] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5099 Comm: mv Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.12.0-55.27.1.el10_0.x86_64+debug #1
[ 60.521718] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-2.fc40 04/01/2014
[ 60.521743] Call Trace:
[ 60.521754] <TASK>
[ 60.521764] dump_stack_lvl+0x6f/0xb0
[ 60.521781] print_deadlock_bug.cold+0xbd/0xca
[ 60.521798] validate_chain+0x83a/0xf00
[ 60.522465] __lock_acquire+0xcac/0x1d20
[ 60.524073] lock_acquire.part.0+0x11b/0x360
[ 60.528512] down_write_nested+0x9f/0x230
[ 60.530038] __kern_path_locked+0x10a/0x2f0
[ 60.532561] kern_path_locked+0x26/0x40
[ 60.533018] audit_alloc_mark+0xfb/0x4f0
[ 60.535295] audit_dupe_exe+0x6c/0xe0
[ 60.536307] audit_dupe_rule+0x6c2/0xc00
[ 60.537290] audit_update_watch+0x4cc/0x11e0
[ 60.537759] audit_watch_handle_event+0x12c/0x1b0
[ 60.538227] send_to_group+0x5d0/0x8b0
[ 60.538683] fsnotify+0x615/0x28a0
[ 60.540007] fsnotify_move+0x1d8/0x630
[ 60.540438] vfs_rename+0xdcd/0x1df0
[ 60.542176] do_renameat2+0x9d4/0xbc0
[ 60.544870] __x64_sys_renameat+0x192/0x260
[ 60.545299] do_syscall_64+0x92/0x180
[ 60.554189] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
[ 60.554562] RIP: 0033:0x7f0491fe8c4e
[ 60.554947] Code: 0f 1f 40 00 48 8b 15 c1 e1 16 00 f7 d8 64 89 02 b8 ff ff ff ff
c3 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 f3 0f 1e fa 49 89 ca b8 08 01 00 00 0f 05 <48> 3d 00 f0 ff ff
77 0a c3 66 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 15 89
[ 60.555789] RSP: 002b:00007ffc7210bf38 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000108
[ 60.556237] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007f0491fe8c4e
[ 60.556683] RDX: 0000000000000003 RSI: 00007ffc7210e6c8 RDI: 00000000ffffff9c
[ 60.557166] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000001
[ 60.557618] R10: 00005575eb2dae2a R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00005575eb2dae2a
[ 60.558080] R13: 00007ffc7210e6c8 R14: 0000000000000003 R15: 00000000ffffff9c
[ 60.558518] </TASK>
The aforementioned deadlock can be consistently reproduced by running
the script below:
audit-dupe-exe-deadlock.sh
--------------------------
#!/bin/bash
auditctl -D
mkdir -p /tmp/foo
touch /tmp/file
auditctl -a always,exit -F exe=/tmp/file -F path=/tmp/file -S all -k dr
mv /tmp/file /tmp/foo/file
rm -Rf /tmp/foo
This patch fixes the issue by introducing struct audit_watch_ctx to pass
the fsnotify event context down to audit_alloc_mark(). By utilizing the
already-resolved directory inode provided by the event, we bypass the
kern_path_parent() path resolution entirely, safely avoiding the
recursive lock. Furthermore, it explicitly allows duplicate fsnotify
marks (allow_dups = 1) during the rename update, allowing the new rule's
mark to safely coexist with the old rule's mark until the old rule is
freed.
ps.: this issue was identified and reproduced during a comprehensive
code coverage analysis of the audit subsystem. The full report is
available at the link below.
Fixes: 34d99af52ad4 ("audit: implement audit by executable")
Link: https://people.redhat.com/rrobaina/audit-code-coverage-analysis.pdf
Acked-by: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/audit.h | 13 ++++++++++---
kernel/audit_fsnotify.c | 33 ++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
kernel/audit_watch.c | 25 +++++++++++++++++--------
kernel/auditfilter.c | 9 +++++----
4 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 26 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/audit.h b/kernel/audit.h
index ac81fa02bcd7..2f988f6257d2 100644
--- a/kernel/audit.h
+++ b/kernel/audit.h
@@ -256,8 +256,13 @@ extern int audit_del_rule(struct audit_entry *entry);
extern void audit_free_rule_rcu(struct rcu_head *head);
extern struct list_head audit_filter_list[];
-extern struct audit_entry *audit_dupe_rule(struct audit_krule *old);
+struct audit_watch_ctx {
+ struct inode *dir;
+ struct inode *child;
+};
+extern struct audit_entry *audit_dupe_rule(struct audit_krule *old,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx);
extern void audit_log_d_path_exe(struct audit_buffer *ab,
struct mm_struct *mm);
@@ -280,13 +285,15 @@ extern char *audit_watch_path(struct audit_watch *watch);
extern int audit_watch_compare(struct audit_watch *watch, u64 ino, dev_t dev);
extern struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_alloc_mark(struct audit_krule *krule,
- char *pathname, int len);
+ char *pathname, int len,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx);
extern char *audit_mark_path(struct audit_fsnotify_mark *mark);
extern void audit_remove_mark(struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_mark);
extern void audit_remove_mark_rule(struct audit_krule *krule);
extern int audit_mark_compare(struct audit_fsnotify_mark *mark, u64 ino,
dev_t dev);
-extern int audit_dupe_exe(struct audit_krule *new, struct audit_krule *old);
+extern int audit_dupe_exe(struct audit_krule *new, struct audit_krule *old,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx);
extern int audit_exe_compare(struct task_struct *tsk,
struct audit_fsnotify_mark *mark);
diff --git a/kernel/audit_fsnotify.c b/kernel/audit_fsnotify.c
index 711454f9f724..eee589bca86e 100644
--- a/kernel/audit_fsnotify.c
+++ b/kernel/audit_fsnotify.c
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ static void audit_update_mark(struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_mark,
audit_mark->ino = inode ? inode->i_ino : AUDIT_INO_UNSET;
}
-struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_alloc_mark(struct audit_krule *krule, char *pathname, int len)
+struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_alloc_mark(struct audit_krule *krule, char *pathname,
+ int len, struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx)
{
struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_mark;
struct path path;
@@ -81,12 +82,14 @@ struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_alloc_mark(struct audit_krule *krule, char *pa
if (pathname[0] != '/' || pathname[len-1] == '/')
return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
- dentry = kern_path_parent(pathname, &path);
- if (IS_ERR(dentry))
- return ERR_CAST(dentry); /* returning an error */
- if (d_really_is_negative(dentry)) {
- audit_mark = ERR_PTR(-ENOENT);
- goto out;
+ if (!ctx) {
+ dentry = kern_path_parent(pathname, &path);
+ if (IS_ERR(dentry))
+ return ERR_CAST(dentry); /* returning an error */
+ if (d_really_is_negative(dentry)) {
+ audit_mark = ERR_PTR(-ENOENT);
+ goto out;
+ }
}
audit_mark = kzalloc_obj(*audit_mark);
@@ -98,18 +101,26 @@ struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_alloc_mark(struct audit_krule *krule, char *pa
fsnotify_init_mark(&audit_mark->mark, audit_fsnotify_group);
audit_mark->mark.mask = AUDIT_FS_EVENTS;
audit_mark->path = pathname;
- audit_update_mark(audit_mark, dentry->d_inode);
audit_mark->rule = krule;
- ret = fsnotify_add_inode_mark(&audit_mark->mark, path.dentry->d_inode, 0);
+ if (ctx) {
+ audit_update_mark(audit_mark, ctx->child);
+ ret = fsnotify_add_inode_mark(&audit_mark->mark, ctx->dir, 1);
+ } else {
+ audit_update_mark(audit_mark, dentry->d_inode);
+ ret = fsnotify_add_inode_mark(&audit_mark->mark, path.dentry->d_inode, 0);
+ }
+
if (ret < 0) {
audit_mark->path = NULL;
fsnotify_put_mark(&audit_mark->mark);
audit_mark = ERR_PTR(ret);
}
out:
- dput(dentry);
- path_put(&path);
+ if (!ctx) {
+ dput(dentry);
+ path_put(&path);
+ }
return audit_mark;
}
diff --git a/kernel/audit_watch.c b/kernel/audit_watch.c
index 33577f0f54ef..2c72e13be42c 100644
--- a/kernel/audit_watch.c
+++ b/kernel/audit_watch.c
@@ -244,7 +244,8 @@ static void audit_watch_log_rule_change(struct audit_krule *r, struct audit_watc
/* Update inode info in audit rules based on filesystem event. */
static void audit_update_watch(struct audit_parent *parent,
const struct qstr *dname, dev_t dev,
- u64 ino, unsigned invalidating)
+ unsigned long ino, unsigned invalidating,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx)
{
struct audit_watch *owatch, *nwatch, *nextw;
struct audit_krule *r, *nextr;
@@ -280,7 +281,7 @@ static void audit_update_watch(struct audit_parent *parent,
list_del(&oentry->rule.rlist);
list_del_rcu(&oentry->list);
- nentry = audit_dupe_rule(&oentry->rule);
+ nentry = audit_dupe_rule(&oentry->rule, ctx);
if (IS_ERR(nentry)) {
list_del(&oentry->rule.list);
audit_panic("error updating watch, removing");
@@ -479,10 +480,17 @@ static int audit_watch_handle_event(struct fsnotify_mark *inode_mark, u32 mask,
if (WARN_ON_ONCE(inode_mark->group != audit_watch_group))
return 0;
- if (mask & (FS_CREATE|FS_MOVED_TO) && inode)
- audit_update_watch(parent, dname, inode->i_sb->s_dev, inode->i_ino, 0);
- else if (mask & (FS_DELETE|FS_MOVED_FROM))
- audit_update_watch(parent, dname, AUDIT_DEV_UNSET, AUDIT_INO_UNSET, 1);
+ if (mask & (FS_CREATE|FS_MOVED_TO) && inode) {
+ struct audit_watch_ctx ctx = { .dir = dir, .child = inode };
+
+ audit_update_watch(parent, dname, inode->i_sb->s_dev, inode->i_ino, 0,
+ &ctx);
+ } else if (mask & (FS_DELETE|FS_MOVED_FROM)) {
+ struct audit_watch_ctx ctx = { .dir = dir, .child = NULL };
+
+ audit_update_watch(parent, dname, AUDIT_DEV_UNSET, AUDIT_INO_UNSET, 1,
+ &ctx);
+ }
else if (mask & (FS_DELETE_SELF|FS_UNMOUNT|FS_MOVE_SELF))
audit_remove_parent_watches(parent);
@@ -505,7 +513,8 @@ static int __init audit_watch_init(void)
}
device_initcall(audit_watch_init);
-int audit_dupe_exe(struct audit_krule *new, struct audit_krule *old)
+int audit_dupe_exe(struct audit_krule *new, struct audit_krule *old,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx)
{
struct audit_fsnotify_mark *audit_mark;
char *pathname;
@@ -514,7 +523,7 @@ int audit_dupe_exe(struct audit_krule *new, struct audit_krule *old)
if (!pathname)
return -ENOMEM;
- audit_mark = audit_alloc_mark(new, pathname, strlen(pathname));
+ audit_mark = audit_alloc_mark(new, pathname, strlen(pathname), ctx);
if (IS_ERR(audit_mark)) {
kfree(pathname);
return PTR_ERR(audit_mark);
diff --git a/kernel/auditfilter.c b/kernel/auditfilter.c
index 093425123f6c..587b46771fb9 100644
--- a/kernel/auditfilter.c
+++ b/kernel/auditfilter.c
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ static struct audit_entry *audit_data_to_entry(struct audit_rule_data *data,
err = PTR_ERR(str);
goto exit_free;
}
- audit_mark = audit_alloc_mark(&entry->rule, str, f_val);
+ audit_mark = audit_alloc_mark(&entry->rule, str, f_val, NULL);
if (IS_ERR(audit_mark)) {
kfree(str);
err = PTR_ERR(audit_mark);
@@ -816,7 +816,8 @@ static inline int audit_dupe_lsm_field(struct audit_field *df,
* rule with the new rule in the filterlist, then free the old rule.
* The rlist element is undefined; list manipulations are handled apart from
* the initial copy. */
-struct audit_entry *audit_dupe_rule(struct audit_krule *old)
+struct audit_entry *audit_dupe_rule(struct audit_krule *old,
+ struct audit_watch_ctx *ctx)
{
u32 fcount = old->field_count;
struct audit_entry *entry;
@@ -875,7 +876,7 @@ struct audit_entry *audit_dupe_rule(struct audit_krule *old)
new->filterkey = fk;
break;
case AUDIT_EXE:
- err = audit_dupe_exe(new, old);
+ err = audit_dupe_exe(new, old, ctx);
break;
}
if (err) {
@@ -1414,7 +1415,7 @@ static int update_lsm_rule(struct audit_krule *r)
if (!security_audit_rule_known(r))
return 0;
- nentry = audit_dupe_rule(r);
+ nentry = audit_dupe_rule(r, NULL);
if (entry->rule.exe)
audit_remove_mark(entry->rule.exe);
if (IS_ERR(nentry)) {
--
2.53.0