[PATCH 1/2] ipe: fix use-after-free when auditing a newly loaded policy

From: Fan Wu

Date: Tue Sep 22 2026 - 23:14:14 EST


new_policy() audits the policy after ipe_new_policyfs_node() publishes it
and drops the new directory's inode lock. A concurrent delete can free
the policy while ipe_audit_policy_load() is still using it.

Audit the successful load under that lock.

Fixes: f44554b5067b ("audit,ipe: add IPE auditing support")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: claude-opus-5.5
Signed-off-by: Fan Wu <wufan@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
security/ipe/fs.c | 8 +++-----
security/ipe/policy_fs.c | 3 +++
2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/security/ipe/fs.c b/security/ipe/fs.c
index 076c111c85c8..847a76afb93d 100644
--- a/security/ipe/fs.c
+++ b/security/ipe/fs.c
@@ -159,18 +159,16 @@ static ssize_t new_policy(struct file *f, const char __user *data,
}

rc = ipe_new_policyfs_node(p);
- if (rc)
- goto out;

out:
kfree(copy);
if (rc < 0) {
ipe_free_policy(p);
ipe_audit_policy_load(ERR_PTR(rc));
- } else {
- ipe_audit_policy_load(p);
+ return rc;
}
- return (rc < 0) ? rc : len;
+
+ return len;
}

static const struct file_operations np_fops = {
diff --git a/security/ipe/policy_fs.c b/security/ipe/policy_fs.c
index 9d92d8a14b13..a7aeb57483c6 100644
--- a/security/ipe/policy_fs.c
+++ b/security/ipe/policy_fs.c
@@ -481,6 +481,9 @@ int ipe_new_policyfs_node(struct ipe_policy *p)
inode_lock(root);
p->policyfs = policyfs;
root->i_private = p;
+ /* Only audit signed policies from userspace */
+ if (p->pkcs7)
+ ipe_audit_policy_load(p);
inode_unlock(root);

return 0;
--
2.55.0