[PATCH v3] locking/rtmutex: Handle empty waiters tree in try_to_take_rt_mutex()

From: Quchaosheng

Date: Wed Sep 16 2026 - 03:37:10 EST


The waiter branch of try_to_take_rt_mutex() reads the top waiter from the
lock waiters tree and passes it to rt_mutex_steal() without checking that
the tree still has waiters.

rt_mutex_slowlock_block() calls try_to_take_rt_mutex() in a loop with a
waiter that was enqueued before the loop. The loop drops wait_lock around
rt_mutex_schedule(), so another task can acquire and release the lock and
dequeue the waiter in the meantime. The loop then calls
try_to_take_rt_mutex() again with a waiter that is no longer part of the
waiters tree.

With an empty waiters tree, rt_mutex_top_waiter() returns NULL, so
rt_mutex_steal() dereferences a NULL rt_waiter_node and reads tree.prio at
offset 0x18. syzbot reports this as a general protection fault in
try_to_take_rt_mutex on PREEMPT_RT:

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
0xdffffc0000000003
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x18-0x1f]
RIP: 0010:try_to_take_rt_mutex+0x177/0xac0 kernel/locking/rtmutex.c:1138
Call Trace:
__rt_mutex_slowlock_locked+0x1fe5/0x25b0
__rwbase_read_lock+0xc3/0x190
down_read+0x132/0x200
inode_lock_shared
lookup_slow+0x46/0x70
link_path_walk+0xd2a/0x1910
path_openat+0x1ce/0x1d60

Take the lock and skip the steal attempt when the waiters tree is empty.
rt_mutex_owner() was already checked above, so the lock is free and the
waiter is the only candidate. rt_mutex_dequeue() already returns early for
a waiter that is not queued, so the skipped call is a no-op, and
rt_mutex_set_owner() clears the transient RT_MUTEX_HAS_WAITERS state. The
waiter == NULL branch handles an empty tree the same way.

Fixes: 48eb3f4fcfd3 ("locking/rtmutex: Implement equal priority lock stealing")
Reported-by: syzbot+917245f59371bf1d27f7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=917245f59371bf1d27f7
Signed-off-by: Quchaosheng <quchaosheng000406@xxxxxxx>
---
v3: Add the Fixes: tag and use the wording suggested by Waiman Long.
No functional change.

v2: Reword the comment. No functional change.

kernel/locking/rtmutex.c | 10 ++++++++++
1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/locking/rtmutex.c b/kernel/locking/rtmutex.c
index 4728631ae..4a6b22027 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/rtmutex.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/rtmutex.c
@@ -1131,6 +1131,16 @@ try_to_take_rt_mutex(struct rt_mutex_base *lock, struct task_struct *task,
if (waiter) {
struct rt_mutex_waiter *top_waiter = rt_mutex_top_waiter(lock);

+ /*
+ * The waiter could have been dequeued while the lock was
+ * dropped. In that case the waiters tree is empty and
+ * top_waiter is NULL, so there is nothing to steal from.
+ * Take the lock and leave the transient state to
+ * rt_mutex_set_owner() below.
+ */
+ if (!top_waiter)
+ goto takeit;
+
/*
* If waiter is the highest priority waiter of @lock,
* or allowed to steal it, take it over.
--
2.43.0