[PATCH v2] keys: Avoid the owner account dereference in named keyring lookup
From: Cen Zhang
Date: Fri Oct 09 2026 - 01:16:35 EST
Named keyring lookup must keep the storage containing the owner UID
alive through the namespace mapping check. find_keyring_by_name()
reads keyring->user->uid under keyring_name_lock, but that lock protects
the keyring's name entry and allocation, not its separate key_user.
A named session-keyring join can overlap a privileged KEYCTL_CHOWN on
another CPU. If the keyring holds the last reference to its old dynamic
key_user and the ownership transfer succeeds, the following ordering is
possible:
Named join Chown
find_keyring_by_name() keyctl_chown_key()
read_lock(keyring_name_lock) down_write(key->sem)
load old keyring->user
replace key->user and key->uid
up_write(key->sem)
key_put(key)
key_user_put(old user): free
read old user->uid
read_unlock(keyring_name_lock)
Chown neither takes keyring_name_lock nor key_session_mutex, so it can
free the old account between the pointer load and the UID read. The
lookup then reads freed memory even though the keyring itself is alive.
Use keyring->uid for the mapping check. key_alloc() initializes this
inline owner UID and keyctl_chown_key() updates it on chown.
The existing name lock keeps its containing keyring allocated throughout
the check, so lookup no longer depends on the account's lifetime. This
also matches the owner UID used by the permission check.
KASAN report as below:
BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in find_keyring_by_name+0x577/0x5d0
Read of size 4 at addr ffff8881128ae2ec by task keycase/500
Fixes: 2ea190d0a006 ("keys: skip keys from another user namespace")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Cen Zhang <zzzccc427@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Trim the KASAN report to its two-line fault summary.
Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/pm-key-management-objects-candidate-0002-v2-dd6c20a1d92928b33ab7@xxxxxxxxx
diff --git a/security/keys/keyring.c b/security/keys/keyring.c
index 15bf4af8f28218ec3f12c97630d1c76939af7eca..46f774be72967a9bd16b0ddfdf323eda36edeff4 100644
--- a/security/keys/keyring.c
+++ b/security/keys/keyring.c
@@ -1158,7 +1158,7 @@ struct key *find_keyring_by_name(const char *name, bool uid_keyring)
* grants Search permission and that hasn't been revoked
*/
list_for_each_entry(keyring, &ns->keyring_name_list, name_link) {
- if (!kuid_has_mapping(ns, keyring->user->uid))
+ if (!kuid_has_mapping(ns, keyring->uid))
continue;
if (test_bit(KEY_FLAG_REVOKED, &keyring->flags))