Re: [PATCH v2] fuse: check for NULL root inode in fuse_fill_super_submount

From: Jingbo Xu

Date: Sun Aug 09 2026 - 23:28:00 EST




On 8/8/26 12:13 PM, Baokun Li wrote:
> fuse_iget() can return NULL when its inode allocation fails, but
> fuse_fill_super_submount() passed the result straight to get_fuse_inode()
> and decremented fi->nlookup without checking it:
>
> root = fuse_iget(sb, parent_fi->nodeid, ...);
> fi = get_fuse_inode(root);
> fi->nlookup--;
>
> Inside fuse_iget() the inode allocation can fail and return NULL. The
> submount root takes the iget5_locked() path, whose alloc_inode() can fail
> under memory pressure (the auto-submount branch can fail the same way in
> new_inode() or fuse_alloc_submount_lookup()):
>
> inode = iget5_locked(sb, nodeid, fuse_inode_eq, fuse_inode_set,
> &nodeid);
> if (!inode)
> return NULL;
>
> A NULL root makes get_fuse_inode() a container_of() on NULL and the
> nlookup decrement a write to a bogus address, oopsing the mount. With
> CONFIG_KASAN the following null pointer dereference is reported when the
> root inode allocation of an auto-submount fails (e.g. under memory
> pressure):
>
> ==================================================================
> BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in fuse_get_tree_submount+0x656/0x8b0
> Read of size 8 at addr 00000000000002b0 by task ls/942
> CPU: 0 PID: 942 Comm: ls Tainted: G W 6.6 #15
> Call Trace:
> <TASK>
> fuse_get_tree_submount+0x656/0x8b0
> vfs_get_tree+0x48/0x140
> fc_mount+0x13/0x50
> fuse_dentry_automount+0x7a/0xb0
> __traverse_mounts+0xca/0x330
> step_into+0x339/0xac0
> path_lookupat+0xc5/0x2f0
> filename_lookup+0x163/0x2a0
> vfs_statx+0xd5/0x200
> do_statx+0x83/0xd0
> __x64_sys_statx+0xa0/0xc0
> do_syscall_64+0x37/0x90
> entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x78/0xe2
> </TASK>
> ==================================================================
>
> Return -ENOMEM instead; the caller tears down the partially built
> superblock on error, matching the other error returns in this
> function.
>
> Fixes: 1866d779d5d2 ("fuse: Allow fuse_fill_super_common() for submounts")
> Signed-off-by: Baokun Li <libaokun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

LGTM.

Reviewed-by: Jingbo Xu \<jefflexu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\>

> ---
> Changes since v1:
> * Correct the Fixes tag.
>
> v1: https://patch.msgid.link/20260806152134.1594639-1-libaokun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> fs/fuse/inode.c | 2 ++
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/fs/fuse/inode.c b/fs/fuse/inode.c
> index d975073c6029..455c7feba057 100644
> --- a/fs/fuse/inode.c
> +++ b/fs/fuse/inode.c
> @@ -1639,6 +1639,8 @@ static int fuse_fill_super_submount(struct super_block *sb,
> fuse_fill_attr_from_inode(&root_attr, parent_fi);
> root = fuse_iget(sb, parent_fi->nodeid, 0, &root_attr, 0, 0,
> fuse_get_evict_ctr(fm->fc));
> + if (!root)
> + return -ENOMEM;
> /*
> * This inode is just a duplicate, so it is not looked up and
> * its nlookup should not be incremented. fuse_iget() does

--
Thanks,
Jingbo