Re: [PATCH] powerpc/ptrace: Add offsetof check for exit_flags in pt_regs_check()

From: Christophe Leroy (CS GROUP)

Date: Fri Aug 14 2026 - 08:32:12 EST




Le 03/07/2026 à 10:55, Amit Machhiwal a écrit :
On 2026/07/03 01:19 PM, Mukesh Kumar Chaurasiya (IBM) wrote:
pt_regs_check() verifies that fields shared between struct pt_regs and
struct user_pt_regs sit at the same offset, to catch any accidental
layout divergence between the kernel and uapi structures.

Add the missing check for exit_flags, following the same pattern as the
existing checks for result, dsisr, dar and the other shared fields.

Fixes: d7a6797e0bc1 ("powerpc: add exit_flags field in pt_regs")

This commit was almost reverted by commit 263e5159e00a ("powerpc: Fix exit_flags field placement in pt_regs for ptrace")

Dropping this patch.

Christophe


You may want to add below in order to get this patch backported:

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Signed-off-by: Mukesh Kumar Chaurasiya (IBM) <mkchauras@xxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/powerpc/kernel/ptrace/ptrace.c | 2 ++
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/ptrace/ptrace.c b/arch/powerpc/kernel/ptrace/ptrace.c
index 316d4f5ead8e..fb3fec73f66a 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/ptrace/ptrace.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/ptrace/ptrace.c
@@ -235,6 +235,8 @@ void __init pt_regs_check(void)
offsetof(struct user_pt_regs, dsisr));
BUILD_BUG_ON(offsetof(struct pt_regs, result) !=
offsetof(struct user_pt_regs, result));
+ BUILD_BUG_ON(offsetof(struct pt_regs, exit_flags) !=
+ offsetof(struct user_pt_regs, exit_flags));

At first, it appeared to be redundant as we already check

CHECK_REG(PT_EXIT_FLAGS, exit_flags);

which expands to:

#define CHECK_REG(_pt, _reg) \
BUILD_BUG_ON(_pt != (offsetof(struct user_pt_regs, _reg) / \
sizeof(unsigned long)));

But looking closely, it turns out to be non-redundant. CHECK_REG only
touches struct user_pt_regs — it validates the PT_EXIT_FLAGS constant
against the uapi layout. It says nothing about struct pt_regs.

struct pt_regs (asm/ptrace.h) embeds struct user_pt_regs in a union
alongside an anonymous struct that re-declares all the same fields with
kernel-internal aliases (dear/dar, esr/dsisr). exit_flags lives in that
anonymous struct. A field accidentally inserted there between result and
exit_flags would silently break the union aliasing without CHECK_REG
catching it. The new BUILD_BUG_ON closes that gap, consistent with how
result, dar and dsisr are already protected in the same block.

Looks good to me.

Reviewed-by: Amit Machhiwal <amachhiw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks,
Amit

BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(struct user_pt_regs) > sizeof(struct pt_regs));
--
2.55.0