Re: [PATCH] ftrace: fix use-after-free of mod->name in function_stat_show()

[Steven Rostedt]

The tracing subsystem expects subjects to start with a capital letter:

  ftrace: Fix use-after-free of mod-name in function_stat_show()


On Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:33:35 +0800
Xiang Gao <gxxa03070307@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Xiang Gao <gaoxiang17@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> function_stat_show() uses guard(rcu)() inside the else block to hold
> the RCU read lock while calling __module_text_address() and accessing
> mod->name. However, guard(rcu)() ties the RCU read lock lifetime to
> the scope of the else block. The original code stores mod->name into
> refsymbol and uses it in snprintf() after the else block exits,
> at which point the RCU read lock has already been released. If the
> module is concurrently unloaded, mod->name is freed, causing a
> use-after-free.
> 
> Fix by moving the snprintf() call into each branch of the if/else,
> so that mod->name is only accessed while the RCU read lock is held.
> refsymbol now points to the local str buffer (which already contains
> the formatted string) rather than to mod->name, and is only used
> afterwards as a non-NULL indicator to skip the kallsyms_lookup()
> fallback.

Was AI used for any part of this patch? Including finding the bug? If
so, it must be disclosed.

> 
> Signed-off-by: Xiang Gao <gaoxiang17@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  kernel/trace/ftrace.c | 10 ++++++----
>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
> index 413310912609..6217b363203c 100644
> --- a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
> +++ b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
> @@ -559,21 +559,23 @@ static int function_stat_show(struct seq_file *m, void *v)
>  		unsigned long offset;
>  
>  		if (core_kernel_text(rec->ip)) {
> -			refsymbol = "_text";
>  			offset = rec->ip - (unsigned long)_text;
> +			snprintf(str, sizeof(str), "  %s+%#lx",
> +				 "_text", offset);
> +			refsymbol = str;
>  		} else {
>  			struct module *mod;
>  
>  			guard(rcu)();

Just move guard(rcu) out of this if statement to include the below
reference. No need to make the code worse. This really looks like AI
slop :-(

-- Steve


>  			mod = __module_text_address(rec->ip);
>  			if (mod) {
> -				refsymbol = mod->name;
>  				/* Calculate offset from module's text entry address. */
>  				offset = rec->ip - (unsigned long)mod->mem[MOD_TEXT].base;
> +				snprintf(str, sizeof(str), "  %s+%#lx",
> +					 mod->name, offset);
> +				refsymbol = str;
>  			}
>  		}
> -		if (refsymbol)
> -			snprintf(str, sizeof(str), "  %s+%#lx", refsymbol, offset);
>  	}
>  	if (!refsymbol)
>  		kallsyms_lookup(rec->ip, NULL, NULL, NULL, str);