Re: [PATCH] md: fix create on open mddev lifetime regression

From: Paul Menzel
Date: Wed Jul 30 2025 - 03:47:51 EST


Dear Kuai,


Thank you for your patch and tracking this down.

Am 30.07.25 um 09:33 schrieb Yu Kuai:
From: Yu Kuai <yukuai3@xxxxxxxxxx>

Commit 9e59d609763f ("md: call del_gendisk in control path") move

move*s*

setting MD_DELETED from __mddev_put() to do_md_stop(), however, for the
case create on open, mddev can be freed without do_md_stop():

1) open

md_probe
md_alloc_and_put
md_alloc
mddev_alloc
atomic_set(&mddev->active, 1);
mddev->hold_active = UNTIL_IOCTL
mddev_put
atomic_dec_and_test(&mddev->active)
if (mddev->hold_active)
-> active is 0, hold_active is set
md_open
mddev_get
atomic_inc(&mddev->active);

2) ioctl that is not STOP_ARRAY, for example, GET_ARRAY_INFO:

md_ioctl
mddev->hold_active = 0

3) close

md_release
mddev_put(mddev);
atomic_dec_and_lock(&mddev->active, &all_mddevs_lock)
__mddev_put
-> hold_active is cleared, mddev will be freed
queue_work(md_misc_wq, &mddev->del_work)

Now that MD_DELETED is not set, before mddev is freed by
mddev_delayed_delete(), md_open can still succeed and break mddev
lifetime, causing mddev->kobj refcount underflow or mddev uaf
problem.

Fix this problem by setting MD_DELETED before queuing del_work.

Reported-by: syzbot+9921e319bd6168140b40@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/68894408.a00a0220.26d0e1.0012.GAE@xxxxxxxxxx/
Reported-by: syzbot+fa3a12519f0d3fd4ec16@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/68894408.a00a0220.26d0e1.0013.GAE@xxxxxxxxxx/
Fixes: 9e59d609763f ("md: call del_gendisk in control path")
Signed-off-by: Yu Kuai <yukuai3@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/md/md.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/md/md.c b/drivers/md/md.c
index 046fe85c76fe..5289dcc3a6af 100644
--- a/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -636,6 +636,12 @@ static void __mddev_put(struct mddev *mddev)
mddev->ctime || mddev->hold_active)
return;
+ /*
+ * If array is freed by stopping array, MD_DELETED is set by
+ * do_md_stop(), MD_DELETED is still set here in cause mddev is freed

in case

+ * directly by closing a mddev that is created by create_on_open.
+ */
+ set_bit(MD_DELETED, &mddev->flags);
/*
* Call queue_work inside the spinlock so that flush_workqueue() after
* mddev_find will succeed in waiting for the work to be done.

With the changes above:

Reviewed-by: Paul Menzel <pmenzel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


Kind regards,

Paul