PF_USER_WORKERs and shadow stack

From: Oleg Nesterov
Date: Wed Aug 13 2025 - 12:40:37 EST


I know nothing about the shadow stacks, perhaps I missed something obvious.

But it seems that if a features_enabled(ARCH_SHSTK_SHSTK) thread creates a
PF_USER_WORKER thread, shstk_alloc_thread_stack() will allocate the shadow
stack for no reason.

Don't we need something like the "patch" below? PF_USER_WORKERs never return
to userspace. Note also that update_fpu_shstk() won't be called in this case.

Oleg.

--- a/arch/x86/kernel/process.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/process.c
@@ -209,9 +209,15 @@ int copy_thread(struct task_struct *p, const struct kernel_clone_args *args)
* is disabled, new_ssp will remain 0, and fpu_clone() will know not to
* update it.
*/
- new_ssp = shstk_alloc_thread_stack(p, clone_flags, args->stack_size);
- if (IS_ERR_VALUE(new_ssp))
- return PTR_ERR((void *)new_ssp);
+ if (args->fn) {
+ new_ssp = 0;
+ // clear p->thread -> shstk/features,
+ // reset_thread_features() won't work
+ } else {
+ new_ssp = shstk_alloc_thread_stack(p, clone_flags, args->stack_size);
+ if (IS_ERR_VALUE(new_ssp))
+ return PTR_ERR((void *)new_ssp);
+ }

fpu_clone(p, clone_flags, args->fn, new_ssp);