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Linux Kernel: Build ID Fetching Lock Deadlock

published 8 months ago
Summary

A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's procfs (process file system) has been fixed. It allowed a deadlock situation when trying to fetch a build ID while holding a lock, potentially causing a system freeze. The fix ensures that build ID fetching happens after the lock is released, preventing this deadlock.

What to do
  • Update linux kernel to version 6.18.10.
Affected software
Ecosystem VendorProductAffected versions
Linux linux kernel >= 6.13.0, < 6.18.10
Fix: upgrade to 6.18.10
Original advisory text
procfs: avoid fetching build ID while holding VMA lock
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

procfs: avoid fetching build ID while holding VMA lock

Fix PROCMAP_QUERY to fetch optional build ID only after dropping mmap_lock
or per-VMA lock, whichever was used to lock VMA under question, to avoid
deadlock reported by syzbot:

-> #1 (&mm->mmap_lock){++++}-{4:4}:
__might_fault+0xed/0x170
_copy_to_iter+0x118/0x1720
copy_page_to_iter+0x12d/0x1e0
filemap_read+0x720/0x10a0
blkdev_read_iter+0x2b5/0x4e0
vfs_read+0x7f4/0xae0
ksys_read+0x12a/0x250
do_syscall_64+0xcb/0xf80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

-> #0 (&sb->s_type->i_mutex_key#8){++++}-{4:4}:
__lock_acquire+0x1509/0x26d0
lock_acquire+0x185/0x340
down_read+0x98/0x490
blkdev_read_iter+0x2a7/0x4e0
__kernel_read+0x39a/0xa90
freader_fetch+0x1d5/0xa80
__build_id_parse.isra.0+0xea/0x6a0
do_procmap_query+0xd75/0x1050
procfs_procmap_ioctl+0x7a/0xb0
__x64_sys_ioctl+0x18e/0x210
do_syscall_64+0xcb/0xf80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

other info that might help us debug this:

Possible unsafe locking scenario:

CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
rlock(&mm->mmap_lock);
lock(&sb->s_type->i_mutex_key#8);
lock(&mm->mmap_lock);
rlock(&sb->s_type->i_mutex_key#8);

*** DEADLOCK ***

This seems to be exacerbated (as we haven't seen these syzbot reports
before that) by the recent:

777a8560fd29 ("lib/buildid: use __kernel_read() for sleepable context")

To make this safe, we need to grab file refcount while VMA is still locked, but
other than that everything is pretty straightforward. Internal build_id_parse()
API assumes VMA is passed, but it only needs the underlying file reference, so
just add another variant build_id_parse_file() that expects file passed
directly.

[[email protected]: fix up kerneldoc]
Timeline
Published14 Feb 2026
Updated7 Aug 2026
First seen7 Aug 2026
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