Following process: P1 P2 path_openat link_path_walk may_lookup inode_permission(rcu) ovl_permission acl_permission_check check_acl get_cached_acl_rcu ovl_get_inode_acl realinode = ovl_inode_real(ovl_inode) drop_cache __dentry_kill(ovl_dentry) iput(ovl_inode) ovl_destroy_inode(ovl_inode) dput(oi->__upperdentry) dentry_kill(upperdentry) dentry_unlink_inode upperdentry->d_inode = NULL ovl_inode_upper upperdentry = ovl_i_dentry_upper(ovl_inode) d_inode(upperdentry) // returns NULL IS_POSIXACL(realinode) // NULL pointer dereference , will trigger an null pointer dereference at realinode: [ 205.472797] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000028 [ 205.476701] CPU: 2 PID: 2713 Comm: ls Not tainted 6.3.0-12064-g2edfa098e750-dirty #1216 [ 205.478754] RIP: 0010:do_ovl_get_acl+0x5d/0x300 [ 205.489584] Call Trace: [ 205.489812] <TASK> [ 205.490014] ovl_get_inode_acl+0x26/0x30 [ 205.490466] get_cached_acl_rcu+0x61/0xa0 [ 205.490908] generic_permission+0x1bf/0x4e0 [ 205.491447] ovl_permission+0x79/0x1b0 [ 205.491917] inode_permission+0x15e/0x2c0 [ 205.492425] link_path_walk+0x115/0x550 [ 205.493311] path_lookupat.isra.0+0xb2/0x200 [ 205.493803] filename_lookup+0xda/0x240 [ 205.495747] vfs_fstatat+0x7b/0xb0 Fetch a reproducer in [Link]. Fix it by checking realinode whether to be NULL before accessing it. Link: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=217404 Fixes: 332f606b32b6 ("ovl: enable RCU'd ->get_acl()") Signed-off-by: Zhihao Cheng <chengzhihao1@xxxxxxxxxx> --- fs/overlayfs/inode.c | 8 ++++---- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/inode.c b/fs/overlayfs/inode.c index 541cf3717fc2..38cfdf9e2b44 100644 --- a/fs/overlayfs/inode.c +++ b/fs/overlayfs/inode.c @@ -563,16 +563,16 @@ struct posix_acl *do_ovl_get_acl(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct posix_acl *acl; struct path realpath; - if (!IS_POSIXACL(realinode)) - return NULL; - /* Careful in RCU walk mode */ ovl_i_path_real(inode, &realpath); - if (!realpath.dentry) { + if (!realpath.dentry || !realinode) { WARN_ON(!rcu); return ERR_PTR(-ECHILD); } + if (!IS_POSIXACL(realinode)) + return NULL; + if (rcu) { /* * If the layer is idmapped drop out of RCU path walk -- 2.31.1