Re: [RFC PATCH] ovl: keep merged and impure readdir caches separate
From: Nirmoy Das
Date: Thu May 14 2026 - 08:14:58 EST
Hi Amir,
After a lot of debug and traces I found another bug in
ovl_iterate_merged(): err is set from PTR_ERR(cache) before the
IS_ERR(cache) check, so on success err holds the truncated cache
pointer.
Claude generated this:
getdents64
└── iterate_dir(outer_overlay_file)
└── ovl_iterate_merged [OUTER]
│
├── cache = ovl_cache_get(dentry): [OUTER ovl_cache_get]
│ │ cache_local = kzalloc(...)
│ │ res = ovl_dir_read_merged(...)
│ │ │
│ │ └── iterate_dir(inner_overlay_file)
│ │ └── ovl_iterate_merged [INNER]
│ │ ├── cache_inner = ovl_cache_get(...) valid 0xFFFF8881_CAC4D940
│ │ ├── err = PTR_ERR(cache_inner) = -893068992 (low32 of ptr)
│ │ ├── IS_ERR(cache_inner) → FALSE
│ │ └── return err; ← leaked stale int
│ │
│ └── return ERR_PTR(res); res = -893068992 (int)
│ sign-extended →
│ (void *)0xFFFFFFFF_CAC4D940
│
├── err = PTR_ERR(cache); err = -893068992
├── if (IS_ERR(cache)) ← FALSE: IS_ERR only trips on top 4K
│ (errno window);
│ 0xFFFFFFFF_CAC4D940 sits below
│ return err; ← skipped
├── od->cache = cache; ★ corrupted pointer stored
└── ovl_seek_cursor(od, ctx->pos)
list_for_each(p, &od->cache->entries)
p = *(&od->cache->entries) on bad pointer ★ PAGE FAULT
Sent it as a separate patch: "[PATCH] ovl: keep err zero after
successful ovl_cache_get()".
Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Nirmoy