[PATCH] tracing/user_events: Fail fork when event state duplication fails
From: Jeff Barnes
Date: Fri Oct 02 2026 - 18:26:56 EST
Registered user events are retained across fork, but duplicating their
state for a child with a separate mm can fail. Both user_event_mm_dup() and
user_events_fork() currently return void, so allocation failure silently
creates a child without the inherited registration state.
The child can consequently retain a stale copy-on-write enable word and
miss later event enable and disable updates.
Return an error from user_event_mm_dup() and user_events_fork(), and
perform the duplication in copy_process() while failure can still be
unwound. Return -ENOMEM when the child user_event_mm or any of its enablers
cannot be duplicated.
Add a cleanup path so successfully acquired user-events state is removed if
a later fork operation fails. Preserve the existing CLONE_VM behavior and
its task reference accounting.
A deterministic allocation-failure test on upstream master previously
allowed fork() to succeed while the child missed an enablement update. With
this change, the same fork fails with ENOMEM. The complete user_events ABI
suite passes.
Fixes: 7235759084a4 ("tracing/user_events: Use remote writes for event enablement")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Jeff Barnes <jeffbarnes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/user_events.h | 16 +++++++---------
kernel/fork.c | 8 ++++++--
kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c | 8 +++++---
3 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/user_events.h b/include/linux/user_events.h
index 57d1ff006090..75f184126727 100644
--- a/include/linux/user_events.h
+++ b/include/linux/user_events.h
@@ -27,28 +27,26 @@ struct user_event_mm {
struct rcu_work put_rwork;
};
-extern void user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t,
- struct user_event_mm *old_mm);
+int user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t, struct user_event_mm *old_mm);
extern void user_event_mm_remove(struct task_struct *t);
-static inline void user_events_fork(struct task_struct *t,
- u64 clone_flags)
+static inline int user_events_fork(struct task_struct *t, u64 clone_flags)
{
struct user_event_mm *old_mm;
if (!t || !current->user_event_mm)
- return;
+ return 0;
old_mm = current->user_event_mm;
if (clone_flags & CLONE_VM) {
t->user_event_mm = old_mm;
refcount_inc(&old_mm->tasks);
- return;
+ return 0;
}
- user_event_mm_dup(t, old_mm);
+ return user_event_mm_dup(t, old_mm);
}
static inline void user_events_execve(struct task_struct *t)
@@ -67,9 +65,9 @@ static inline void user_events_exit(struct task_struct *t)
user_event_mm_remove(t);
}
#else
-static inline void user_events_fork(struct task_struct *t,
- u64 clone_flags)
+static inline int user_events_fork(struct task_struct *t, u64 clone_flags)
{
+ return 0;
}
static inline void user_events_execve(struct task_struct *t)
diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index 10f2d05d816a..9e3da2e6059f 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -2311,9 +2311,12 @@ __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
retval = copy_mm(clone_flags, p);
if (retval)
goto bad_fork_cleanup_signal;
- retval = copy_namespaces(clone_flags, p);
+ retval = user_events_fork(p, clone_flags);
if (retval)
goto bad_fork_cleanup_mm;
+ retval = copy_namespaces(clone_flags, p);
+ if (retval)
+ goto bad_fork_cleanup_user_events;
retval = copy_io(clone_flags, p);
if (retval)
goto bad_fork_cleanup_namespaces;
@@ -2575,7 +2578,6 @@ __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
trace_task_newtask(p, clone_flags);
uprobe_copy_process(p, clone_flags);
- user_events_fork(p, clone_flags);
copy_oom_score_adj(clone_flags, p);
@@ -2602,6 +2604,8 @@ __latent_entropy struct task_struct *copy_process(
exit_io_context(p);
bad_fork_cleanup_namespaces:
exit_nsproxy_namespaces(p);
+bad_fork_cleanup_user_events:
+ user_events_exit(p);
bad_fork_cleanup_mm:
sched_cache_fork_cleanup(p);
if (p->mm) {
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
index f658c3a77aa7..8941c8d7c193 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_user.c
@@ -863,7 +863,7 @@ void user_event_mm_remove(struct task_struct *t)
queue_rcu_work(system_percpu_wq, &mm->put_rwork);
}
-void user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t, struct user_event_mm *old_mm)
+int user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t, struct user_event_mm *old_mm)
{
struct user_event_mm *mm = user_event_mm_alloc(t);
struct user_event_enabler *enabler;
@@ -872,7 +872,7 @@ void user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t, struct user_event_mm *old_mm)
t->user_event_mm = NULL;
if (!mm)
- return;
+ return -ENOMEM;
rcu_read_lock();
@@ -884,10 +884,12 @@ void user_event_mm_dup(struct task_struct *t, struct user_event_mm *old_mm)
rcu_read_unlock();
user_event_mm_attach(mm, t);
- return;
+ return 0;
error:
rcu_read_unlock();
user_event_mm_destroy(mm);
+
+ return -ENOMEM;
}
static bool current_user_event_enabler_exists(unsigned long uaddr,
--
2.43.0