[PATCH V2] mm/slab: ensure all metadata in slab object are word-aligned

From: Harry Yoo

Date: Mon Oct 27 2025 - 08:11:21 EST


When the SLAB_STORE_USER debug flag is used, any metadata placed after
the original kmalloc request size (orig_size) is not properly aligned
on 64-bit architectures because its type is unsigned int. When both KASAN
and SLAB_STORE_USER are enabled, kasan_alloc_meta is misaligned.

Note that 64-bit architectures without HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
are assumed to require 64-bit accesses to be 64-bit aligned.
See HAVE_64BIT_ALIGNED_ACCESS and commit adab66b71abf ("Revert:
"ring-buffer: Remove HAVE_64BIT_ALIGNED_ACCESS"") for more details.

Because not all architectures support unaligned memory accesses,
ensure that all metadata (track, orig_size, kasan_{alloc,free}_meta)
in a slab object are word-aligned. struct track, kasan_{alloc,free}_meta
are aligned by adding __aligned(__alignof__(unsigned long)).

For orig_size, use ALIGN(sizeof(unsigned int), sizeof(unsigned long)) to
make clear that its size remains unsigned int but it must be aligned to
a word boundary. On 64-bit architectures, this reserves 8 bytes for
orig_size, which is acceptable since kmalloc's original request size
tracking is intended for debugging rather than production use.

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fixes: 6edf2576a6cc ("mm/slub: enable debugging memory wasting of kmalloc")
Acked-by: Andrey Konovalov <andreyknvl@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Harry Yoo <harry.yoo@xxxxxxxxxx>
---

v1 -> v2:
- Added Andrey's Acked-by.
- Added references to HAVE_64BIT_ALIGNED_ACCESS and the commit that
resurrected it.
- Used __alignof__() instead of sizeof(), as suggested by Pedro (off-list).
Note: either __alignof__ or sizeof() produces the exactly same mm/slub.o
files, so there's no functional difference.

Thanks!

mm/kasan/kasan.h | 4 ++--
mm/slub.c | 16 +++++++++++-----
2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/kasan/kasan.h b/mm/kasan/kasan.h
index 129178be5e64..b86b6e9f456a 100644
--- a/mm/kasan/kasan.h
+++ b/mm/kasan/kasan.h
@@ -265,7 +265,7 @@ struct kasan_alloc_meta {
struct kasan_track alloc_track;
/* Free track is stored in kasan_free_meta. */
depot_stack_handle_t aux_stack[2];
-};
+} __aligned(__alignof__(unsigned long));

struct qlist_node {
struct qlist_node *next;
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ struct qlist_node {
struct kasan_free_meta {
struct qlist_node quarantine_link;
struct kasan_track free_track;
-};
+} __aligned(__alignof__(unsigned long));

#endif /* CONFIG_KASAN_GENERIC */

diff --git a/mm/slub.c b/mm/slub.c
index a585d0ac45d4..462a39d57b3a 100644
--- a/mm/slub.c
+++ b/mm/slub.c
@@ -344,7 +344,7 @@ struct track {
int cpu; /* Was running on cpu */
int pid; /* Pid context */
unsigned long when; /* When did the operation occur */
-};
+} __aligned(__alignof__(unsigned long));

enum track_item { TRACK_ALLOC, TRACK_FREE };

@@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ static void print_trailer(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab, u8 *p)
off += 2 * sizeof(struct track);

if (slub_debug_orig_size(s))
- off += sizeof(unsigned int);
+ off += ALIGN(sizeof(unsigned int), __alignof__(unsigned long));

off += kasan_metadata_size(s, false);

@@ -1392,7 +1392,8 @@ static int check_pad_bytes(struct kmem_cache *s, struct slab *slab, u8 *p)
off += 2 * sizeof(struct track);

if (s->flags & SLAB_KMALLOC)
- off += sizeof(unsigned int);
+ off += ALIGN(sizeof(unsigned int),
+ __alignof__(unsigned long));
}

off += kasan_metadata_size(s, false);
@@ -7820,9 +7821,14 @@ static int calculate_sizes(struct kmem_cache_args *args, struct kmem_cache *s)
*/
size += 2 * sizeof(struct track);

- /* Save the original kmalloc request size */
+ /*
+ * Save the original kmalloc request size.
+ * Although the request size is an unsigned int,
+ * make sure that is aligned to word boundary.
+ */
if (flags & SLAB_KMALLOC)
- size += sizeof(unsigned int);
+ size += ALIGN(sizeof(unsigned int),
+ __alignof__(unsigned long));
}
#endif

--
2.43.0