[PATCH v4] ARM: mm: acquire mmap write lock around show_pte() for user faults

From: Xie Yuanbin

Date: Wed Jul 15 2026 - 21:43:03 EST


When CONFIG_DEBUG_USER=y, and cmdline "user_debug=31" is set,
a user fault may trigger show_pte() without any lock.
If another thread in the same process concurrently calls munmap(),
the page table pages may be freed while show_pte() is still traversing
them, causing a use-after-free in show_pte().

If CONFIG_ARM_LPAE=y, this may cause a kernel panic if the pages table
of PMD are freed when show_pte() is running.

Acquire mmap_write_lock() around show_pte() for user faults to fix the
contention.

For user faults, additionally restrict that show_pte() is called only
when the addr is a user-space address (addr < TASK_SIZE). This is because
the lock of tsk->mm only protects the virtual memory of user address space,
furthermore, dumping the page tables of a kernel-space address for user
faults is unnecessary and may have security implications.

Keep everything unchanged for kernel faults, because the kernel is
already in the "oops" state, acquiring a lock may risk a deadlock.

Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
Fixes: 6d021b724481 ("ARM: dump pgd, pmd and pte states on unhandled data abort faults")
Depends-on: <20260629123349.134224-1-xieyuanbin1@xxxxxxxxxx>
Depends-on: 59e4f3b45b96 ("ARM: ensure interrupts are enabled in __do_user_fault()")

Cc: Russell King <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@xxxxxxxxxx>
Co-developed-by: Qi Xi <xiqi2@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Qi Xi <xiqi2@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Xie Yuanbin <xieyuanbin1@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
For __do_user_fault(), it must be a user fault, so the
judgement of user_mode(regs) can be omitted.

For do_DataAbort(), it may be a user fault or a kernel fault. If it is
a kernel fault, it must be a kernel oops, the kernel will die soon.
Also, a user program may be constructed to trigger
do_DataAbort()->show_pte(), as described in this mail:
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260625100031.25088-1-xieyuanbin1@xxxxxxxxxx

For user faults, it is safe to acquire mmap_write_lock(), because
we never return to user with mmap lock held or pagefault disabled.

Note that, due to the lack of ARMv4T for testing, this patch does not
fix the issue in baddataabort()->show_pte().

V3->V4:
- Keep nothing change for kernel faults.
- Change mmap read lock to write lock.
- Restrict that show_pte() is called only when the addr
is a user-space address (addr < TASK_SIZE).

arch/arm/mm/fault.c | 16 ++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm/mm/fault.c b/arch/arm/mm/fault.c
index c68677503532..0a09d4ff7718 100644
--- a/arch/arm/mm/fault.c
+++ b/arch/arm/mm/fault.c
@@ -174,21 +174,25 @@ __do_user_fault(unsigned long addr, unsigned int fsr, unsigned int sig,
struct task_struct *tsk = current;

local_irq_enable();

#ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_USER
if (((user_debug & UDBG_SEGV) && (sig == SIGSEGV)) ||
((user_debug & UDBG_BUS) && (sig == SIGBUS))) {
pr_err("8<--- cut here ---\n");
pr_err("%s: unhandled page fault (%d) at 0x%08lx, code 0x%03x\n",
tsk->comm, sig, addr, fsr);
- show_pte(KERN_ERR, tsk->mm, addr);
+ if (likely(addr < TASK_SIZE)) {
+ mmap_write_lock(tsk->mm);
+ show_pte(KERN_ERR, tsk->mm, addr);
+ mmap_write_unlock(tsk->mm);
+ }
show_regs(regs);
}
#endif
#ifndef CONFIG_KUSER_HELPERS
if ((sig == SIGSEGV) && ((addr & PAGE_MASK) == 0xffff0000))
printk_ratelimited(KERN_DEBUG
"%s: CONFIG_KUSER_HELPERS disabled at 0x%08lx\n",
tsk->comm, addr);
#endif

@@ -632,21 +636,29 @@ do_DataAbort(unsigned long addr, unsigned int fsr, struct pt_regs *regs)

if (!inf->fn(addr, fsr & ~FSR_LNX_PF, regs))
return;

if (likely(user_mode(regs)))
local_irq_enable();

pr_alert("8<--- cut here ---\n");
pr_alert("Unhandled fault: %s (0x%03x) at 0x%08lx\n",
inf->name, fsr, addr);
- show_pte(KERN_ALERT, current->mm, addr);
+ if (likely(user_mode(regs))) {
+ if (addr < TASK_SIZE) {
+ mmap_write_lock(current->mm);
+ show_pte(KERN_ALERT, current->mm, addr);
+ mmap_write_unlock(current->mm);
+ }
+ } else {
+ show_pte(KERN_ALERT, current->mm, addr);
+ }

arm_notify_die("", regs, inf->sig, inf->code, (void __user *)addr,
fsr, 0);
}

void __init
hook_ifault_code(int nr, int (*fn)(unsigned long, unsigned int, struct pt_regs *),
int sig, int code, const char *name)
{
if (nr < 0 || nr >= ARRAY_SIZE(ifsr_info))
--
2.53.0