published September 17, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fs/resctrl: Prevent use-after-free in rdtgroup_kn_put()
A struct rdtgroup is reference counted via rdtgroup::waitcount. Callers that
need the structure to remain valid across a sleep (while waiting on acquiring
rdtgroup_mutex) take a reference with rdtgroup_kn_get() and release it with
rdtgroup_kn_put().
The release path is intended to serve as the fallback freer: if the count
drops to zero and the group has already been marked RDT_DELETED,
rdtgroup_kn_put() frees the structure.
The bulk teardown paths free_all_child_rdtgrp() and rmdir_all_sub() resulting
from a resctrl directory remove or resctrl fs unmount act as the primary
freer: they hold rdtgroup_mutex and free each rdtgroup whose waitcount is
zero, otherwise they set RDT_DELETED and leave the freeing to the last waiter.
These two freers race. rdtgroup_kn_put() commits waitcount == 0 with
atomic_dec_and_test() outside rdtgroup_mutex, then reads rdtgroup::flags.
Between those two operations a concurrent caller of free_all_child_rdtgrp()
or rmdir_all_sub() (which holds the mutex) can observe waitcount == 0 via
atomic_read(), call rdtgroup_remove(), and kfree() the structure.
The subsequent read of rdtgroup::flags in rdtgroup_kn_put() is then
a use-after-free, and the structure may even be freed twice if the freed
memory happens to satisfy the RDT_DELETED flag check.
Replace the bare atomic_dec_and_test() with atomic_dec_and_mutex_lock() so
that the decrement-to-zero takes rdtgroup_mutex before the count becomes
globally visible. The inspection of rdtgroup::flags then runs under the same
mutex held by the bulk freers, making the two paths mutually exclusive.
The common case where the count does not reach zero remains lock-free. Defer
kernfs_unbreak_active_protection() until after the mutex is dropped since
kernfs active protections functionally wrap rdtgroup_mutex. Remove resource
group, which in turn drops its kernfs reference, after kernfs protection is
restored.
[ bp: Split the commit messsages into smaller, easier-parseable paragraphs. ]