Before this change on a system with the following setup crashed kernel: ``` CONFIG_STATIC_USERMODEHELPER=y CONFIG_STATIC_USERMODEHELPER_PATH="" kernel.core_pattern = |/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-coredump %P %u %g %s %t %c %h %e ``` The crash happens when a core dump is attempted: ``` [ 2.819676] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000020 [ 2.819859] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 2.820035] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 2.820188] PGD 0 P4D 0 [ 2.820305] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI [ 2.820436] CPU: 2 PID: 89 Comm: a Not tainted 5.7.0-rc1+ #7 [ 2.820680] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS ?-20190711_202441-buildvm-armv7-10.arm.fedoraproject.org-2.fc31 04/01/2014 [ 2.821150] RIP: 0010:do_coredump+0xd80/0x1060 [ 2.821385] Code: e8 95 11 ed ff 48 c7 c6 cc a7 b4 81 48 8d bd 28 ff ff ff 89 c2 e8 70 f1 ff ff 41 89 c2 85 c0 0f 84 72 f7 ff ff e9 b4 fe ff ff <48> 8b 57 20 0f b7 02 66 25 00 f0 66 3d 00 8 0 0f 84 9c 01 00 00 44 [ 2.822014] RSP: 0000:ffffc9000029bcb8 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 2.822339] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88803f860000 RCX: 000000000000000a [ 2.822746] RDX: 0000000000000009 RSI: 0000000000000282 RDI: 0000000000000000 [ 2.823141] RBP: ffffc9000029bde8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffc9000029bc00 [ 2.823508] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: ffff88803dec90be R12: ffffffff81c39da0 [ 2.823902] R13: ffff88803de84400 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 2.824285] FS: 00007fee08183540(0000) GS:ffff88803e480000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 2.824767] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 2.825111] CR2: 0000000000000020 CR3: 000000003f856005 CR4: 0000000000060ea0 [ 2.825479] Call Trace: [ 2.825790] get_signal+0x11e/0x720 [ 2.826087] do_signal+0x1d/0x670 [ 2.826361] ? force_sig_info_to_task+0xc1/0xf0 [ 2.826691] ? force_sig_fault+0x3c/0x40 [ 2.826996] ? do_trap+0xc9/0x100 [ 2.827179] exit_to_usermode_loop+0x49/0x90 [ 2.827359] prepare_exit_to_usermode+0x77/0xb0 [ 2.827559] ? invalid_op+0xa/0x30 [ 2.827747] ret_from_intr+0x20/0x20 [ 2.827921] RIP: 0033:0x55e2c76d2129 [ 2.828107] Code: 2d ff ff ff e8 68 ff ff ff 5d c6 05 18 2f 00 00 01 c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 e9 7b ff ff ff 55 48 89 e5 <0f> 0b b8 00 00 00 00 5d c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 0 0 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 40 [ 2.828603] RSP: 002b:00007fffeba5e080 EFLAGS: 00010246 [ 2.828801] RAX: 000055e2c76d2125 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007fee0817c718 [ 2.829034] RDX: 00007fffeba5e188 RSI: 00007fffeba5e178 RDI: 0000000000000001 [ 2.829257] RBP: 00007fffeba5e080 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007fee08193c00 [ 2.829482] R10: 0000000000000009 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 000055e2c76d2040 [ 2.829727] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000000 [ 2.829964] CR2: 0000000000000020 [ 2.830149] ---[ end trace ceed83d8c68a1bf1 ]--- ``` Here is the sequence of events why it happens: fs/coredump.c:do_coredump(): 1. create 'coredump_params = { .file = NULL }' 2. detect pipe mode 3. `call_usermodehelper_setup(..., umh_pipe_setup, ...)` 4. `call_usermodehelper_exec()` 5. (if both succeeded) `file_start_write(cprm.file);` Here crash happens at [5.] as `cprm.file` is still NULL. Normally it works because `fs/coredump.c:umh_pipe_setup()` is called successfully and populates `.file` field (or returns the error): ``` static int umh_pipe_setup(struct subprocess_info *info, struct cred *new) { //... struct coredump_params *cp = (struct coredump_params *)info->data; // ... cp->file = files[1]; // ... } ``` But in our case neither happens because `kernel/umh.c:call_usermodehelper_exec()` has a special case: ``` int call_usermodehelper_exec(struct subprocess_info *sub_info, int wait) { int retval = 0; // ... /* * If there is no binary for us to call, then just return and get out of * here. This allows us to set STATIC_USERMODEHELPER_PATH to "" and * disable all call_usermodehelper() calls. */ if (strlen(sub_info->path) == 0) goto out; ... out: // ... return retval; ``` This breaks assumption of `do_coredump()`: "either helper was called successfully and created a file to dump core to or it failed". This change converts this special case to `-EPERM` error. This way we notify user that helper call was not successful and don't attempt to act on uninitialized `.file` field. User gets `"Core dump to |%s pipe failed\n` dmesg entry. Reported-by: Sergey Kvachonok <ravenexp@xxxxxxxxx> Reported-by: Tony Vroon <chainsaw@xxxxxxxxxx> Bug: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=199795 Signed-off-by: Sergei Trofimovich <slyfox@xxxxxxxxxx> CC: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@xxxxxxxxxx> CC: Alexander Viro <viro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> CC: linux-fsdevel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --- kernel/umh.c | 4 +++- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/kernel/umh.c b/kernel/umh.c index 7f255b5a8845..66b02634a9ba 100644 --- a/kernel/umh.c +++ b/kernel/umh.c @@ -565,8 +565,10 @@ int call_usermodehelper_exec(struct subprocess_info *sub_info, int wait) * here. This allows us to set STATIC_USERMODEHELPER_PATH to "" and * disable all call_usermodehelper() calls. */ - if (strlen(sub_info->path) == 0) + if (strlen(sub_info->path) == 0) { + retval = -EPERM; goto out; + } /* * Set the completion pointer only if there is a waiter. -- 2.26.1