Re: [PATCH] slub: fix data loss and overflow in krealloc()

From: Harry Yoo (Oracle)

Date: Fri Apr 17 2026 - 00:42:51 EST


[+Cc relevant folks]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 03:25:07PM +0200, Marco Elver wrote:
> Commit 2cd8231796b5 ("mm/slub: allow to set node and align in
> k[v]realloc") introduced the ability to force a reallocation if the
> original object does not satisfy new alignment or NUMA node, even when
> the object is being shrunk.
>
> This introduced two bugs in the reallocation fallback path:
>
> 1. Data loss during NUMA migration: The jump to 'alloc_new' happens
> before 'ks' and 'orig_size' are initialized. As a result, the
> memcpy() in the 'alloc_new' block would copy 0 bytes into the new
> allocation.

Ouch.

> 2. Buffer overflow during shrinking: When shrinking an object while
> forcing a new alignment, 'new_size' is smaller than the old size.
> However, the memcpy() used the old size ('orig_size ?: ks'), leading
> to an out-of-bounds write.

Right. before the commit we didn't reallocate when the size is smaller.

> The same overflow bug exists in the kvrealloc() fallback path, where the
> old bucket size ksize(p) is copied into the new buffer without being
> bounded by the new size.
>
> A simple reproducer:
>
> // e.g. add to lkdtm as KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW
> while (1) {
> void *p = kmalloc(128, GFP_KERNEL);
> p = krealloc_node_align(p, 64, 256, GFP_KERNEL, NUMA_NO_NODE);
> kfree(p);
> }
>
> demonstrates the issue:
>
> ==================================================================
> BUG: KFENCE: out-of-bounds write in memcpy_orig+0x68/0x130
>
> Out-of-bounds write at 0xffff8883ad757038 (120B right of kfence-#47):
> memcpy_orig+0x68/0x130
> krealloc_node_align_noprof+0x1c8/0x340
> lkdtm_KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW+0x8c/0xc0 [lkdtm]
> lkdtm_do_action+0x3a/0x60 [lkdtm]
> ...
>
> kfence-#47: 0xffff8883ad756fc0-0xffff8883ad756fff, size=64, cache=kmalloc-64
>
> allocated by task 316 on cpu 7 at 97.680481s (0.021813s ago):
> krealloc_node_align_noprof+0x19c/0x340
> lkdtm_KREALLOC_SHRINK_OVERFLOW+0x8c/0xc0 [lkdtm]
> lkdtm_do_action+0x3a/0x60 [lkdtm]
> ...
> ==================================================================
>
> Fix it by moving the old size calculation to the top of __do_krealloc()
> and bounding all copy lengths by the new allocation size.
>
> Fixes: 2cd8231796b5 ("mm/slub: allow to set node and align in k[v]realloc")
> Cc: <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reported-by: https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260415143735.2974230-1-elver%40google.com
> Signed-off-by: Marco Elver <elver@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---

Looks good to me, but I think we still have a similar issue in
vrealloc_node_align_noprof()? (goto need_realloc; due to NUMA mismatch
but the new size is smaller)

--
Cheers,
Harry / Hyeonggon