[RFC 2/2] arm64: kprobes: Allow reentering kprobes while single-stepping

From: Pu Hu

Date: Wed Jul 01 2026 - 08:15:53 EST


From: hupu <hupu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

A kprobe can be hit while another kprobe is in KPROBE_HIT_SS state. This
can happen when tracing or perf code runs from the debug exception path
while the first kprobe is preparing or executing its out-of-line
single-step instruction.

Currently arm64 treats a kprobe hit in KPROBE_HIT_SS as unrecoverable,
the same as a hit in KPROBE_REENTER. This is too strict. A hit in
KPROBE_HIT_SS is still a one-level reentry and can be handled by saving
the current kprobe state and setting up single-step for the new probe,
just like reentry from KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE or KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE.

The truly unrecoverable case is hitting another kprobe while already in
KPROBE_REENTER, because the reentry save area has already been consumed.

Move KPROBE_HIT_SS to the recoverable reentry cases and leave
KPROBE_REENTER as the unrecoverable nested reentry case.

This mirrors the x86 fix in commit 6a5022a56ac3
("kprobes/x86: Allow to handle reentered kprobe on single-stepping").

Signed-off-by: hupu <hupu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Hongyan Xia <hongyan.xia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c | 8 +++++++-
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c
index e4d2852ce2fb..764b2228cca0 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/probes/kprobes.c
@@ -240,10 +240,16 @@ static int __kprobes reenter_kprobe(struct kprobe *p,
switch (kcb->kprobe_status) {
case KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE:
case KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE:
+ case KPROBE_HIT_SS:
+ /*
+ * A probe can be hit while another kprobe is preparing or
+ * executing its XOL single-step instruction. This is still a
+ * recoverable one-level reentry, so handle it in the same way as
+ * reentry from KPROBE_HIT_ACTIVE or KPROBE_HIT_SSDONE.
+ */
kprobes_inc_nmissed_count(p);
setup_singlestep(p, regs, kcb, 1);
break;
- case KPROBE_HIT_SS:
case KPROBE_REENTER:
pr_warn("Failed to recover from reentered kprobes.\n");
dump_kprobe(p);
--
2.43.0