Re: [PATCH] selftests/mm: check stat() return value in khugepaged get_finfo()

From: SJ Park

Date: Wed Aug 19 2026 - 20:14:16 EST


'get_maintainer.pl --nogit --nogit-fallback' suggests adding below recipients.
I added them.

- Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Baolin Wang <baolin.wang@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- "Liam R. Howlett" <liam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Nico Pache <nico.pache@xxxxxxxxx>
- Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@xxxxxxx>
- Dev Jain <dev.jain@xxxxxxx>
- Barry Song <baohua@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Lance Yang <lance.yang@xxxxxxxxx>
- Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
- Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Mike Rapoport <rppt@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Michal Hocko <mhocko@xxxxxxxx>

On Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:44:26 +0530 Anshuman <anshumantewari123@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> get_finfo() calls stat() to get metadata about the target directory,
> but never checks the return value. On failure, stat() returns -1 and
> leaves path_stat unmodified, so path_stat.st_mode may contain
> uninitialized stack data.
>
> The code then checks S_ISDIR(path_stat.st_mode) against this
> potentially garbage value. This can produce a misleading "Not a
> directory" error when the real problem is a nonexistent or
> inaccessible path, or, in the worst case, the check could pass by
> chance on garbage data and let the function continue using an
> invalid path_stat for the rest of its logic.
>
> Check the return value and fail with a clear error message if
> stat() fails, matching the error-handling style already used for
> statfs() and read_file() later in the same function.

Makes sense to me.

>
> Signed-off-by: Anshuman <anshumantewari123@xxxxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: SJ Park <sj@xxxxxxxxxx>


Thanks,
SJ

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