The readdir operation iterates over all entries and invokes dir_emit() for every entry passing kernfs_node::name as argument. Since the name argument can change, and become invalid, the kernfs_root::kernfs_rwsem lock should not be dropped to prevent renames during the operation. The lock drop around dir_emit() has been initially introduced in commit 1e5289c97bba2 ("sysfs: Cache the last sysfs_dirent to improve readdir scalability v2") to avoid holding a global lock during a page fault. The lock drop is wrong since the support of renames and not a big burden since the lock is no longer global. Don't re-acquire kernfs_root::kernfs_rwsem while copying the name to the userpace buffer. Signed-off-by: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/kernfs/dir.c | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/kernfs/dir.c b/fs/kernfs/dir.c index 458519e416fe7..5a1fea414996e 100644 --- a/fs/kernfs/dir.c +++ b/fs/kernfs/dir.c @@ -1868,10 +1868,10 @@ static int kernfs_fop_readdir(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx) file->private_data = pos; kernfs_get(pos); - up_read(&root->kernfs_rwsem); - if (!dir_emit(ctx, name, len, ino, type)) + if (!dir_emit(ctx, name, len, ino, type)) { + up_read(&root->kernfs_rwsem); return 0; - down_read(&root->kernfs_rwsem); + } } up_read(&root->kernfs_rwsem); file->private_data = NULL; -- 2.47.2