[PATCH 4/5] slab: Set freed variables to NULL by default

From: Kees Cook
Date: Fri Mar 21 2025 - 16:41:49 EST


To defang a subset of "dangling pointer" use-after-free flaws[1], take the
address of any lvalues passed to kfree() and set them to NULL after
freeing.

To do this manually, kfree_and_null() (and the "sensitive" variant)
are introduced.

Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/87 [1]
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Pekka Enberg <penberg@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Rientjes <rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Joonsoo Kim <iamjoonsoo.kim@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Hyeonggon Yoo <42.hyeyoo@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx
---
include/linux/slab.h | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
mm/slab_common.c | 8 ++++----
mm/slub.c | 6 +++---
3 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/slab.h b/include/linux/slab.h
index 3e807ccc8583..2717ad238fa2 100644
--- a/include/linux/slab.h
+++ b/include/linux/slab.h
@@ -465,11 +465,35 @@ void * __must_check krealloc_noprof(const void *objp, size_t new_size,
gfp_t flags) __realloc_size(2);
#define krealloc(...) alloc_hooks(krealloc_noprof(__VA_ARGS__))

-void kfree(const void *objp);
-void kfree_sensitive(const void *objp);
+void __kfree(const void *objp);
+void __kfree_sensitive(const void *objp);
size_t __ksize(const void *objp);

-#define __kfree(x) kfree(x)
+static inline void kfree_and_null(void **ptr)
+{
+ __kfree(*ptr);
+ *ptr = NULL;
+}
+static inline void kfree_sensitive_and_null(void **ptr)
+{
+ __kfree_sensitive(*ptr);
+ *ptr = NULL;
+}
+
+#define __force_lvalue_expr(x) \
+ __builtin_choose_expr(__is_lvalue(x), x, (void *){ NULL })
+
+#define __free_and_null(__how, x) \
+({ \
+ typeof(x) *__ptr = &(x); \
+ __how ## _and_null((void **)__ptr); \
+})
+#define __free_and_maybe_null(__how, x) \
+ __builtin_choose_expr(__is_lvalue(x), \
+ __free_and_null(__how, __force_lvalue_expr(x)), \
+ __kfree(x))
+#define kfree(x) __free_and_maybe_null(kfree, x)
+#define kfree_sensitive(x) __free_and_maybe_null(kfree_sensitive, x)

DEFINE_FREE(kfree, void *, if (!IS_ERR_OR_NULL(_T)) kfree(_T))
DEFINE_FREE(kfree_sensitive, void *, if (_T) kfree_sensitive(_T))
diff --git a/mm/slab_common.c b/mm/slab_common.c
index 4030907b6b7d..9a82952ec266 100644
--- a/mm/slab_common.c
+++ b/mm/slab_common.c
@@ -1211,7 +1211,7 @@ module_init(slab_proc_init);
#endif /* CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG */

/**
- * kfree_sensitive - Clear sensitive information in memory before freeing
+ * __kfree_sensitive - Clear sensitive information in memory before freeing
* @p: object to free memory of
*
* The memory of the object @p points to is zeroed before freed.
@@ -1221,7 +1221,7 @@ module_init(slab_proc_init);
* deal bigger than the requested buffer size passed to kmalloc(). So be
* careful when using this function in performance sensitive code.
*/
-void kfree_sensitive(const void *p)
+void __kfree_sensitive(const void *p)
{
size_t ks;
void *mem = (void *)p;
@@ -1231,9 +1231,9 @@ void kfree_sensitive(const void *p)
kasan_unpoison_range(mem, ks);
memzero_explicit(mem, ks);
}
- kfree(mem);
+ __kfree(mem);
}
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(kfree_sensitive);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(__kfree_sensitive);

size_t ksize(const void *objp)
{
diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index 1f50129dcfb3..38dd898667bf 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -4729,12 +4729,12 @@ static void free_large_kmalloc(struct folio *folio, void *object)
}

/**
- * kfree - free previously allocated memory
+ * __kfree - free previously allocated memory
* @object: pointer returned by kmalloc() or kmem_cache_alloc()
*
* If @object is NULL, no operation is performed.
*/
-void kfree(const void *object)
+void __kfree(const void *object)
{
struct folio *folio;
struct slab *slab;
@@ -4756,7 +4756,7 @@ void kfree(const void *object)
s = slab->slab_cache;
slab_free(s, slab, x, _RET_IP_);
}
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(kfree);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(__kfree);

static __always_inline __realloc_size(2) void *
__do_krealloc(const void *p, size_t new_size, gfp_t flags)
--
2.34.1