[PATCH v2 01/13] kexec: add CRASH_WIPE_SECRETS to wipe secrets before kdump
From: Jan Sebastian Götte
Date: Tue Aug 11 2026 - 13:56:54 EST
When kdump is used to capture system memory after a panic(), any secret
keys currently in RAM end up in the dump. Add an opt-in atomic notifier
chain, crash_wipe_secrets_notifier_list, invoked late into
__crash_kexec(). Subsystems holding secrets can register a callback to
wipe them.
Callbacks are run after machine_crash_shutdown() has already stopped the
other CPUs and disabled preemption. Callbacks must not wait on locks,
which will never be released.
This is a best-effort, defence-in-depth measure, not a guarantee.
Secrets in flight on the stack, in registers, in DMA buffers, or in
other places in memory are out of scope.
Signed-off-by: Jan Sebastian Götte <linux@xxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/crash_core.h | 16 ++++++++++++++++
kernel/Kconfig.kexec | 16 ++++++++++++++++
kernel/crash_core.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 61 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/linux/crash_core.h b/include/linux/crash_core.h
index bc087124cd78..4230463f3faa 100644
--- a/include/linux/crash_core.h
+++ b/include/linux/crash_core.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
#include <linux/linkage.h>
#include <linux/elfcore.h>
#include <linux/elf.h>
+#include <linux/notifier.h>
struct kimage;
@@ -34,6 +35,21 @@ static inline void arch_kexec_protect_crashkres(void) { }
static inline void arch_kexec_unprotect_crashkres(void) { }
#endif
+#ifdef CONFIG_CRASH_WIPE_SECRETS
+int crash_wipe_secrets_register(struct notifier_block *nb);
+int crash_wipe_secrets_unregister(struct notifier_block *nb);
+#else
+static inline int crash_wipe_secrets_register(struct notifier_block *nb)
+{
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static inline int crash_wipe_secrets_unregister(struct notifier_block *nb)
+{
+ return 0;
+}
+#endif
+
#ifndef arch_crash_handle_hotplug_event
static inline void arch_crash_handle_hotplug_event(struct kimage *image, void *arg) { }
#endif
diff --git a/kernel/Kconfig.kexec b/kernel/Kconfig.kexec
index 15632358bcf7..1d2d273145df 100644
--- a/kernel/Kconfig.kexec
+++ b/kernel/Kconfig.kexec
@@ -179,4 +179,20 @@ config CRASH_MAX_MEMORY_RANGES
the computation behind the value provided through the
/sys/kernel/crash_elfcorehdr_size attribute.
+config CRASH_WIPE_SECRETS
+ bool "Wipe secrets before kdump"
+ depends on CRASH_DUMP
+ help
+ Wipe secrets (e.g. kernel keyring and memfd_secret pages) on crash or
+ panic. This is a best effort, defense-in-depth feature: If the panic
+ happens at a really bad time, or if copies of the secrets are present
+ in places like on the stack, in I/O buffers, or in userspace memory
+ not allocated through memfd_secret, they may still be leaked.
+
+ Note that enabling this feature carries some risk of crashing the
+ system during the wipe process if the kernel was already unstable
+ when the panic happened.
+
+ If unsure, say N.
+
endmenu
diff --git a/kernel/crash_core.c b/kernel/crash_core.c
index 2b36aa9fade0..95f5c0415e60 100644
--- a/kernel/crash_core.c
+++ b/kernel/crash_core.c
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
#include <linux/objtool.h>
#include <linux/delay.h>
#include <linux/panic.h>
+#include <linux/timekeeping.h>
#include <asm/page.h>
#include <asm/sections.h>
@@ -33,6 +34,33 @@
/* Per cpu memory for storing cpu states in case of system crash. */
note_buf_t __percpu *crash_notes;
+#ifdef CONFIG_CRASH_WIPE_SECRETS
+ATOMIC_NOTIFIER_HEAD(crash_wipe_secrets_notifier_list);
+
+int crash_wipe_secrets_register(struct notifier_block *nb)
+{
+ return atomic_notifier_chain_register(
+ &crash_wipe_secrets_notifier_list, nb);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(crash_wipe_secrets_register);
+
+int crash_wipe_secrets_unregister(struct notifier_block *nb)
+{
+ return atomic_notifier_chain_unregister(
+ &crash_wipe_secrets_notifier_list, nb);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(crash_wipe_secrets_unregister);
+
+static void crash_wipe_secrets(void)
+{
+ pr_info("Wiping sensitive secrets...\n");
+ atomic_notifier_call_chain(&crash_wipe_secrets_notifier_list, 0, NULL);
+ pr_info("Done wiping secrets.\n");
+}
+#else
+static inline void crash_wipe_secrets(void) { }
+#endif /* CONFIG_CRASH_WIPE_SECRETS */
+
/* time to wait for possible DMA to finish before starting the kdump kernel
* when a CMA reservation is used
*/
@@ -142,6 +170,7 @@ void __noclone __crash_kexec(struct pt_regs *regs)
crash_save_vmcoreinfo();
machine_crash_shutdown(&fixed_regs);
crash_cma_clear_pending_dma();
+ crash_wipe_secrets();
machine_kexec(kexec_crash_image);
}
kexec_unlock();
--
2.53.0