[PATCH v2] mm_access: simplify the security checks

From: Oleg Nesterov

Date: Sat May 30 2026 - 10:12:56 EST


1. Shift the fast-path "mm == current->mm" check from may_access_mm()
to mm_access(), and do it locklessly.

task->mm is not stable but we do not care. We can race with exec,
but in this case we pin/return current->mm. This doesn't differ
from the case where the target execs after we drop exec_update_lock.

All we need for correctness is READ_ONCE() to ensure the compiler
won't reload task->mm. This is not enough for KCSAN, but we already
have other lockless ->mm LOAD's. We should probably change exec_mmap/
exit_mm to use WRITE_ONCE().

2. With the change above, may_access_mm() doesn't need the "mm" argument,
so we do not need to call get_task_mm() beforehand. We can call it
only if may_access_mm() succeeds.

Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/fork.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++--------------
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index b8b651abce8b..3239380ab93b 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -1381,10 +1381,8 @@ struct mm_struct *get_task_mm(struct task_struct *task)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(get_task_mm);

-static bool may_access_mm(struct mm_struct *mm, struct task_struct *task, unsigned int mode)
+static bool may_access_mm(struct task_struct *task, unsigned int mode)
{
- if (mm == current->mm)
- return true;
if (ptrace_may_access(task, mode))
return true;
if ((mode & PTRACE_MODE_READ) && perfmon_capable())
@@ -1394,20 +1392,24 @@ static bool may_access_mm(struct mm_struct *mm, struct task_struct *task, unsign

struct mm_struct *mm_access(struct task_struct *task, unsigned int mode)
{
- struct mm_struct *mm;
- int err;
+ struct mm_struct *mm = READ_ONCE(task->mm);

- err = down_read_killable(&task->signal->exec_update_lock);
- if (err)
- return ERR_PTR(err);
+ if (!mm || (task->flags & PF_KTHREAD))
+ return ERR_PTR(-ESRCH);

- mm = get_task_mm(task);
- if (!mm) {
- mm = ERR_PTR(-ESRCH);
- } else if (!may_access_mm(mm, task, mode)) {
- mmput(mm);
- mm = ERR_PTR(-EACCES);
+ if (mm == current->mm) {
+ mmget(mm);
+ return mm;
}
+
+ if (down_read_killable(&task->signal->exec_update_lock))
+ return ERR_PTR(-EINTR);
+
+ if (may_access_mm(task, mode))
+ mm = get_task_mm(task) ?: ERR_PTR(-ESRCH);
+ else
+ mm = ERR_PTR(-EACCES);
+
up_read(&task->signal->exec_update_lock);

return mm;
--
2.52.0