[PATCH v3 0/4] tracing: Fix NULL dereference when copying keys for a field variable
From: Donggeun Yoo
Date: Mon Sep 14 2026 - 01:34:55 EST
A hist trigger with an onmatch() action copies the key list of the
compatible histogram it finds on the matched event. Reading each key's
name straight out of key_field->field->name faults on any pseudo-field
key. 4/4 renders the key with expr_field_str() instead. The three before
it make that renderer produce something parse_field() accepts.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-trace-kernel/20260913203129.941270-1-donggeunyoo.kernel@xxxxxxxxx/
Changes since v2:
- Rebased onto v7.3-rc4. v2 was built on 2f0c1cf72f46, before the tracing
fixes merged, and that turns out to matter -- see the next entry.
- Reinstated the stacktrace patch, now 3/4. v2 dropped it after measuring
that common_stacktrace.stacktrace parsed fine. That was true of
2f0c1cf72f46 and is no longer true: a5e70ba87ca8 now refuses the
modifier unless the field is a real one with FILTER_STACKTRACE, so
without 3/4 a common_stacktrace key renders into a command that is
rejected.
- 1/4 is new: hist_field_print() prints the bucket size with %ld, so a
size above LONG_MAX reads back negative. Reported by sashiko-bot.
- 2/4 uses %lu for the same reason.
Patches 1/4 through 3/4 have no effect on their own -- nothing reaches
expr_field_str() with a bucketed or stacktrace field until 4/4 renders keys
with it -- but each is needed before 4/4, and in this order no bisection
point regresses.
The command create_field_var_hist() generates, for each kind of key the
copied histogram can carry:
WK key unpatched patched
pid keys=pid keys=pid
pid.log2 keys=pid keys=pid.log2
pid.buckets=10 keys=pid keys=pid.buckets=10
common_cpu oops keys=common_cpu
common_comm oops keys=common_comm
common_timestamp oops keys=common_timestamp
common_timestamp.usecs oops keys=common_timestamp.usecs
common_stacktrace oops keys=common_stacktrace
hitcount oops keys=hitcount
Unpatched, the .log2 and .buckets rows drop their modifier, so the
generated histogram does not bucket the way the one it mirrors does. Each
oops is a null-ptr-deref at create_field_var_hist+0x771, taken in its own
boot; the three real-field rows run the same loop to completion without
faulting, so the six are the loop reaching the faulting line rather than a
boot failure.
And the bucket size a key can carry, read back from the trigger:
.buckets= unpatched patched
0 rejected rejected
-5 rejected rejected
18446744073709551616 rejected rejected
9223372036854775807 9223372036854775807 9223372036854775807
9223372036854775808 -9223372036854775808 9223372036854775808
18446744073709551615 -1 18446744073709551615
x86_64 under QEMU, CONFIG_KASAN=y, 4 CPUs, base 704340f1cd0d. A compatible
histogram on sched_waking keyed on WK, an onmatch() target on sched_switch
keyed on SK, my_synth($wakeup_lat,prio) forcing a field variable.
Donggeun Yoo (4):
tracing: Print the bucket size as unsigned
tracing: Add the bucket size to expr_field_str()
tracing: Only report the stacktrace modifier on a real field
tracing: Fix NULL dereference when copying keys for a field variable
kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c | 9 ++++++---
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
--
2.53.0