[PATCH v3 2/2] futex: Prevent rcuwait use-after-free during requeue PI

From: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior

Date: Mon Aug 24 2026 - 08:59:52 EST


From: Yao Kai <yaokai34@xxxxxxxxxx>

On PREEMPT_RT, FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PI can trigger a KASAN report
(slab-out-of-bounds) in futex_requeue_pi_complete() invocation of
rcuwait_wake_up().

The futex_q used by futex_wait_requeue_pi() is allocated on the waiter's
stack. An early wakeup can race with a PI requeue as follows:

waiter requeue task
------ ------------
futex_wait_requeue_pi()
futex_do_wait()
schedule()
futex_requeue
futex_proxy_trylock_atomic()
futex_requeue_pi_prepare()
Q_REQUEUE_PI_NONE -> Q_REQUEUE_PI_IN_PROGRESS
* timeout/ signal wakes waiter *
futex_requeue_pi_wakeup_sync()
Q_REQUEUE_PI_IN_PROGRESS -> Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT
requeue_pi_wake_futex
futex_requeue_pi_complete()
cmpxchg Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT -> Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED
rcuwait_wait_event()
if (atomic_read(&q->requeue_state) != Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT)
break /* no schedule() */

/* q.pi_state->owner == current */
futex_private_hash_put()
/* return from syscall */
rcuwait_wake_up(&q->requeue_wait)
/* q is gone */

futex_requeue_pi_complete() publishes Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED before
calling rcuwait_wake_up(). The waiter observes this state in
rcuwait_wait_event() before invoking schedule() in rcuwait_wait_event().
Here, the waiter is free leave the syscall before requeue task can
complete the wake.

To address this race skip rcuwait_wake_up() in the Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED
case.
This state is only published by requeue_pi_wake_futex(), which saves
q->task before futex_requeue_pi_complete() and wakes the waiter via
wake_up_state().

This wake is intended to wake the waiter from its futex_do_wait() sleep.
If the waiter is still sleeping there, it can not get into the
Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT state (and require this removed wake).
Should the waiter be woken up from futex_do_wait() by other means (as in
this example) and sleep in futex_requeue_pi_wakeup_sync() then the
wake_up_state() from requeue_pi_wake_futex() will wake it, too.
Should the waiter task terminate before wake_up_state() had a chance to
wake the task then the task pointer does not become invalid because the
futex_hash_bucket::lock is held and the task pointer is RCU protected.

[bigeasy: Updated comment and commit message]

Fixes: 07d91ef510fb1 ("futex: Prevent requeue_pi() lock nesting issue on RT")
Signed-off-by: Yao Kai <yaokai34@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/futex/requeue.c | 12 ++++++++++--
1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/futex/requeue.c b/kernel/futex/requeue.c
index d8c9e7d218695..6e98d5189f90a 100644
--- a/kernel/futex/requeue.c
+++ b/kernel/futex/requeue.c
@@ -155,8 +155,16 @@ static inline void futex_requeue_pi_complete(struct futex_q *q, int locked)
} while (!atomic_try_cmpxchg(&q->requeue_state, &old, new));

#ifdef CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
- /* If the waiter interleaved with the requeue let it know */
- if (unlikely(old == Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT))
+ /*
+ * The waiter in futex_requeue_pi_wakeup_sync() can interleave with the
+ * wake below: It will assign Q_REQUEUE_PI_IN_PROGRESS and here it will
+ * be updated to Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED (locked = 1). The rcuwait_wait_event()
+ * will already read Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED and skip the schedule() invocation,
+ * leading to an access of futex_q::requeue_wait after the waiter returned.
+ * In this case only we skip the wake here and rely on following wake in
+ * requeue_pi_wake_futex() to perform the wake if needed.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(old == Q_REQUEUE_PI_WAIT) && new != Q_REQUEUE_PI_LOCKED)
rcuwait_wake_up(&q->requeue_wait);
#endif
}
--
2.55.0