Re: [BUG] configfs: slab-use-after-free in configfs_drop_dentry() on rmdir

[Breno Leitao]

On Tue, May 26, 2026 at 08:42:00PM +0000, Farhad Alemi wrote:
> Hello Andreas and the configfs team,
> 
> I am reporting a configfs use-after-free found by syzkaller.
> 
> Summary:
> A configfs config-item rmdir(2) can land in configfs_drop_dentry() with
> sd->s_dentry pointing at a dentry whose RCU grace period has not yet
> elapsed. The spin_lock(&dentry->d_lock) at fs/configfs/inode.c:209 then
> reads freed slab memory and KASAN reports a slab-use-after-free.

Thanks for the report. I was able to reproduce it on linus' upstream
tree. 

I've came up with the following fix, would you mind trying it, please?


commit d78c04736ef0ede76093c780a188560b6baed3c3
Author: Breno Leitao <leitao@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date:   Wed May 27 06:25:49 2026 -0400

    configfs: fix UAF in configfs_drop_dentry() after failed attribute lookup
    
    When configfs_lookup() matches an attribute it publishes the new dentry
    into sd->s_dentry (and dentry->d_fsdata) before calling
    configfs_create() to allocate the inode:
    
            dentry->d_fsdata = configfs_get(sd);
            sd->s_dentry = dentry;
            spin_unlock(&configfs_dirent_lock);
    
            inode = configfs_create(dentry, mode);
            if (IS_ERR(inode)) {
                    configfs_put(sd);
                    return ERR_CAST(inode);
            }
    
    If configfs_create() fails (e.g. new_inode() returns NULL under memory
    pressure or fault injection), the lookup returns an error and the
    caller dputs the now-negative dentry, which goes through
    __dentry_kill() and is freed via call_rcu().
    
    Because the dentry never gained an inode it does not go through the
    .d_iput op (configfs_d_iput), which is the only place that clears
    sd->s_dentry.  sd therefore keeps a stale pointer to the freed dentry.
    A subsequent rmdir of the parent item walks the parent's s_children
    list in detach_attrs() and configfs_drop_dentry() does
    spin_lock(&sd->s_dentry->d_lock) on freed memory:
    
      BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in _raw_spin_lock+0xac/0x110
      Read of size 1 at addr ffff00012bacd028 by task repro/2440
       _raw_spin_lock+0xac/0x110
       configfs_drop_dentry+0x48/0x158 [configfs]
       detach_attrs.isra.0+0x18c/0x494 [configfs]
       configfs_rmdir+0x450/0x71c [configfs]
       vfs_rmdir+0x170/0x620
       ...
      Freed by task 0:
       __d_free+0x28/0x34
       rcu_do_batch+0x37c/0x1bd0
       ...
      Last potentially related work creation:
       call_rcu+0x34/0x68
       dentry_free+0xe8/0x3e0
       __dentry_kill+0x404/0x604
       dput+0x14/0x30
       lookup_open.isra.0+0x6ac/0xc00
       path_openat+0xd18/0x2588
    
    Fix this by tearing down the sd<->dentry linkage in the
    configfs_create() error path, under configfs_dirent_lock, mirroring
    what configfs_d_iput() would have done for a positive dentry.
    
    Reported-by: Farhad Alemi <farhad.alemi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
    Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@xxxxxxxxxx>

diff --git a/fs/configfs/dir.c b/fs/configfs/dir.c
index 362b6ff9b908..68d857dcb2d9 100644
--- a/fs/configfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/configfs/dir.c
@@ -486,6 +486,22 @@ static struct dentry * configfs_lookup(struct inode *dir,
 
 			inode = configfs_create(dentry, mode);
 			if (IS_ERR(inode)) {
+				/*
+				 * configfs_create() failed (e.g. -ENOMEM
+				 * from new_inode()).  The dentry will be
+				 * dput()ed by the caller and freed via RCU;
+				 * because it never gained an inode,
+				 * configfs_d_iput() will not run to clear
+				 * sd->s_dentry.  Drop the linkage here so a
+				 * later detach_attrs() walking the parent's
+				 * s_children list does not dereference a
+				 * freed dentry in configfs_drop_dentry().
+				 */
+				spin_lock(&configfs_dirent_lock);
+				if (sd->s_dentry == dentry)
+					sd->s_dentry = NULL;
+				dentry->d_fsdata = NULL;
+				spin_unlock(&configfs_dirent_lock);
 				configfs_put(sd);
 				return ERR_CAST(inode);
 			}