<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-stable.git/kernel/audit_fsnotify.c, branch v7.1.4</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel stable tree</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>audit: fix removal of dangling executable rules</title>
<updated>2026-07-18T14:55:46+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Ricardo Robaina</name>
<email>rrobaina@redhat.com</email>
</author>
<published>2026-05-13T21:47:59+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=fe85607ceffc035cee287cc31600fb6a6e70db62'/>
<id>fe85607ceffc035cee287cc31600fb6a6e70db62</id>
<content type='text'>
commit 888a0396e154524f4027f27da84bdbec9eb68916 upstream.

When an audited executable is deleted from the disk, its dentry
becomes negative. Any later attempt to delete the associated audit
rule will lead to audit_alloc_mark() encountering this negative
dentry and immediately aborting, returning -ENOENT.

This early abort prevents the subsystem from allocating the temporary
fsnotify mark needed to construct the search key, meaning the kernel
cannot find the existing rule in its own lists to delete it. This
leaves a dangling rule in memory, resulting in the following error
while attempting to delete the rule:

 # ./audit-dupe-exe-deadlock.sh
 No rules
 Error deleting rule (No such file or directory)
 There was an error while processing parameters

 # auditctl -l
 -a always,exit -S all -F exe=/tmp/file -F path=/tmp/file -F key=dr

 # auditctl -D
 Error deleting rule (No such file or directory)
 There was an error while processing parameters

This patch fixes this issue by removing the d_really_is_negative()
check. By doing so, a dummy mark can be successfully generated for
the deleted path, which allows the audit subsystem to properly match
and flush the dangling rule.

Cc: stable@kernel.org
Fixes: 76a53de6f7ff ("VFS/audit: introduce kern_path_parent() for audit")
Acked-by: Waiman Long &lt;longman@redhat.com&gt;
Acked-by: Richard Guy Briggs &lt;rgb@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina &lt;rrobaina@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
commit 888a0396e154524f4027f27da84bdbec9eb68916 upstream.

When an audited executable is deleted from the disk, its dentry
becomes negative. Any later attempt to delete the associated audit
rule will lead to audit_alloc_mark() encountering this negative
dentry and immediately aborting, returning -ENOENT.

This early abort prevents the subsystem from allocating the temporary
fsnotify mark needed to construct the search key, meaning the kernel
cannot find the existing rule in its own lists to delete it. This
leaves a dangling rule in memory, resulting in the following error
while attempting to delete the rule:

 # ./audit-dupe-exe-deadlock.sh
 No rules
 Error deleting rule (No such file or directory)
 There was an error while processing parameters

 # auditctl -l
 -a always,exit -S all -F exe=/tmp/file -F path=/tmp/file -F key=dr

 # auditctl -D
 Error deleting rule (No such file or directory)
 There was an error while processing parameters

This patch fixes this issue by removing the d_really_is_negative()
check. By doing so, a dummy mark can be successfully generated for
the deleted path, which allows the audit subsystem to properly match
and flush the dangling rule.

Cc: stable@kernel.org
Fixes: 76a53de6f7ff ("VFS/audit: introduce kern_path_parent() for audit")
Acked-by: Waiman Long &lt;longman@redhat.com&gt;
Acked-by: Richard Guy Briggs &lt;rgb@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina &lt;rrobaina@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>audit: widen ino fields to u64</title>
<updated>2026-03-06T13:31:26+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Jeff Layton</name>
<email>jlayton@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2026-03-04T15:32:32+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=125dfa218134df7cc112667e92984de9d8cd0bf6'/>
<id>125dfa218134df7cc112667e92984de9d8cd0bf6</id>
<content type='text'>
inode-&gt;i_ino is being widened from unsigned long to u64. The audit
subsystem uses unsigned long ino in struct fields, function parameters,
and local variables that store inode numbers from arbitrary filesystems.
On 32-bit platforms this truncates inode numbers that exceed 32 bits,
which will cause incorrect audit log entries and broken watch/mark
comparisons.

Widen all audit ino fields, parameters, and locals to u64, and update
the inode format string from %lu to %llu to match.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton &lt;jlayton@kernel.org&gt;
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260304-iino-u64-v3-2-2257ad83d372@kernel.org
Acked-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
inode-&gt;i_ino is being widened from unsigned long to u64. The audit
subsystem uses unsigned long ino in struct fields, function parameters,
and local variables that store inode numbers from arbitrary filesystems.
On 32-bit platforms this truncates inode numbers that exceed 32 bits,
which will cause incorrect audit log entries and broken watch/mark
comparisons.

Widen all audit ino fields, parameters, and locals to u64, and update
the inode format string from %lu to %llu to match.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton &lt;jlayton@kernel.org&gt;
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260304-iino-u64-v3-2-2257ad83d372@kernel.org
Acked-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument</title>
<updated>2026-02-22T01:09:51+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2026-02-22T00:37:42+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=bf4afc53b77aeaa48b5409da5c8da6bb4eff7f43'/>
<id>bf4afc53b77aeaa48b5409da5c8da6bb4eff7f43</id>
<content type='text'>
This was done entirely with mindless brute force, using

    git grep -l '\&lt;k[vmz]*alloc_objs*(.*, GFP_KERNEL)' |
        xargs sed -i 's/\(alloc_objs*(.*\), GFP_KERNEL)/\1)/'

to convert the new alloc_obj() users that had a simple GFP_KERNEL
argument to just drop that argument.

Note that due to the extreme simplicity of the scripting, any slightly
more complex cases spread over multiple lines would not be triggered:
they definitely exist, but this covers the vast bulk of the cases, and
the resulting diff is also then easier to check automatically.

For the same reason the 'flex' versions will be done as a separate
conversion.

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
This was done entirely with mindless brute force, using

    git grep -l '\&lt;k[vmz]*alloc_objs*(.*, GFP_KERNEL)' |
        xargs sed -i 's/\(alloc_objs*(.*\), GFP_KERNEL)/\1)/'

to convert the new alloc_obj() users that had a simple GFP_KERNEL
argument to just drop that argument.

Note that due to the extreme simplicity of the scripting, any slightly
more complex cases spread over multiple lines would not be triggered:
they definitely exist, but this covers the vast bulk of the cases, and
the resulting diff is also then easier to check automatically.

For the same reason the 'flex' versions will be done as a separate
conversion.

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>treewide: Replace kmalloc with kmalloc_obj for non-scalar types</title>
<updated>2026-02-21T09:02:28+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Kees Cook</name>
<email>kees@kernel.org</email>
</author>
<published>2026-02-21T07:49:23+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=69050f8d6d075dc01af7a5f2f550a8067510366f'/>
<id>69050f8d6d075dc01af7a5f2f550a8067510366f</id>
<content type='text'>
This is the result of running the Coccinelle script from
scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci. The script is designed to
avoid scalar types (which need careful case-by-case checking), and
instead replace kmalloc-family calls that allocate struct or union
object instances:

Single allocations:	kmalloc(sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_obj(TYPE, ...)

Array allocations:	kmalloc_array(COUNT, sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_objs(TYPE, COUNT, ...)

Flex array allocations:	kmalloc(struct_size(PTR, FAM, COUNT), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_flex(*PTR, FAM, COUNT, ...)

(where TYPE may also be *VAR)

The resulting allocations no longer return "void *", instead returning
"TYPE *".

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook &lt;kees@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
This is the result of running the Coccinelle script from
scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci. The script is designed to
avoid scalar types (which need careful case-by-case checking), and
instead replace kmalloc-family calls that allocate struct or union
object instances:

Single allocations:	kmalloc(sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_obj(TYPE, ...)

Array allocations:	kmalloc_array(COUNT, sizeof(TYPE), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_objs(TYPE, COUNT, ...)

Flex array allocations:	kmalloc(struct_size(PTR, FAM, COUNT), ...)
are replaced with:	kmalloc_flex(*PTR, FAM, COUNT, ...)

(where TYPE may also be *VAR)

The resulting allocations no longer return "void *", instead returning
"TYPE *".

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook &lt;kees@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>VFS/audit: introduce kern_path_parent() for audit</title>
<updated>2025-09-23T10:37:35+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>NeilBrown</name>
<email>neil@brown.name</email>
</author>
<published>2025-09-22T04:29:51+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=76a53de6f7ff0641570364234fb4489f4d4fc8e9'/>
<id>76a53de6f7ff0641570364234fb4489f4d4fc8e9</id>
<content type='text'>
audit_alloc_mark() and audit_get_nd() both need to perform a path
lookup getting the parent dentry (which must exist) and the final
target (following a LAST_NORM name) which sometimes doesn't need to
exist.

They don't need the parent to be locked, but use kern_path_locked() or
kern_path_locked_negative() anyway.  This is somewhat misleading to the
casual reader.

This patch introduces a more targeted function, kern_path_parent(),
which returns not holding locks.  On success the "path" will
be set to the parent, which must be found, and the return value is the
dentry of the target, which might be negative.

This will clear the way to rename kern_path_locked() which is
otherwise only used to prepare for removing something.

It also allows us to remove kern_path_locked_negative(), which is
transformed into the new kern_path_parent().

Signed-off-by: NeilBrown &lt;neil@brown.name&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
audit_alloc_mark() and audit_get_nd() both need to perform a path
lookup getting the parent dentry (which must exist) and the final
target (following a LAST_NORM name) which sometimes doesn't need to
exist.

They don't need the parent to be locked, but use kern_path_locked() or
kern_path_locked_negative() anyway.  This is somewhat misleading to the
casual reader.

This patch introduces a more targeted function, kern_path_parent(),
which returns not holding locks.  On success the "path" will
be set to the parent, which must be found, and the return value is the
dentry of the target, which might be negative.

This will clear the way to rename kern_path_locked() which is
otherwise only used to prepare for removing something.

It also allows us to remove kern_path_locked_negative(), which is
transformed into the new kern_path_parent().

Signed-off-by: NeilBrown &lt;neil@brown.name&gt;
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner &lt;brauner@kernel.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>audit: fix potential double free on error path from fsnotify_add_inode_mark</title>
<updated>2022-08-22T22:50:06+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Gaosheng Cui</name>
<email>cuigaosheng1@huawei.com</email>
</author>
<published>2022-08-22T02:29:05+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=ad982c3be4e60c7d39c03f782733503cbd88fd2a'/>
<id>ad982c3be4e60c7d39c03f782733503cbd88fd2a</id>
<content type='text'>
Audit_alloc_mark() assign pathname to audit_mark-&gt;path, on error path
from fsnotify_add_inode_mark(), fsnotify_put_mark will free memory
of audit_mark-&gt;path, but the caller of audit_alloc_mark will free
the pathname again, so there will be double free problem.

Fix this by resetting audit_mark-&gt;path to NULL pointer on error path
from fsnotify_add_inode_mark().

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 7b1293234084d ("fsnotify: Add group pointer in fsnotify_init_mark()")
Signed-off-by: Gaosheng Cui &lt;cuigaosheng1@huawei.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Audit_alloc_mark() assign pathname to audit_mark-&gt;path, on error path
from fsnotify_add_inode_mark(), fsnotify_put_mark will free memory
of audit_mark-&gt;path, but the caller of audit_alloc_mark will free
the pathname again, so there will be double free problem.

Fix this by resetting audit_mark-&gt;path to NULL pointer on error path
from fsnotify_add_inode_mark().

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Fixes: 7b1293234084d ("fsnotify: Add group pointer in fsnotify_init_mark()")
Signed-off-by: Gaosheng Cui &lt;cuigaosheng1@huawei.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Paul Moore &lt;paul@paul-moore.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>fsnotify: make allow_dups a property of the group</title>
<updated>2022-04-25T12:37:18+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Amir Goldstein</name>
<email>amir73il@gmail.com</email>
</author>
<published>2022-04-22T12:03:16+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=f3010343d9e119da35ee864b3a28993bb5c78ed7'/>
<id>f3010343d9e119da35ee864b3a28993bb5c78ed7</id>
<content type='text'>
Instead of passing the allow_dups argument to fsnotify_add_mark()
as an argument, define the group flag FSNOTIFY_GROUP_DUPS to express
the allow_dups behavior and set this behavior at group creation time
for all calls of fsnotify_add_mark().

Rename the allow_dups argument to generic add_flags argument for future
use.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220422120327.3459282-6-amir73il@gmail.com
Suggested-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Instead of passing the allow_dups argument to fsnotify_add_mark()
as an argument, define the group flag FSNOTIFY_GROUP_DUPS to express
the allow_dups behavior and set this behavior at group creation time
for all calls of fsnotify_add_mark().

Rename the allow_dups argument to generic add_flags argument for future
use.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220422120327.3459282-6-amir73il@gmail.com
Suggested-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>fsnotify: pass flags argument to fsnotify_alloc_group()</title>
<updated>2022-04-25T12:37:12+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Amir Goldstein</name>
<email>amir73il@gmail.com</email>
</author>
<published>2022-04-22T12:03:15+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=867a448d587e7fa845bceaf4ee1c632448f2a9fa'/>
<id>867a448d587e7fa845bceaf4ee1c632448f2a9fa</id>
<content type='text'>
Add flags argument to fsnotify_alloc_group(), define and use the flag
FSNOTIFY_GROUP_USER in inotify and fanotify instead of the helper
fsnotify_alloc_user_group() to indicate user allocation.

Although the flag FSNOTIFY_GROUP_USER is currently not used after group
allocation, we store the flags argument in the group struct for future
use of other group flags.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220422120327.3459282-5-amir73il@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Add flags argument to fsnotify_alloc_group(), define and use the flag
FSNOTIFY_GROUP_USER in inotify and fanotify instead of the helper
fsnotify_alloc_user_group() to indicate user allocation.

Although the flag FSNOTIFY_GROUP_USER is currently not used after group
allocation, we store the flags argument in the group struct for future
use of other group flags.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220422120327.3459282-5-amir73il@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>fsnotify: clarify contract for create event hooks</title>
<updated>2021-10-27T10:32:34+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Amir Goldstein</name>
<email>amir73il@gmail.com</email>
</author>
<published>2021-10-25T19:27:18+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=dabe729dddca550446e9cc118c96d1f91703345b'/>
<id>dabe729dddca550446e9cc118c96d1f91703345b</id>
<content type='text'>
Clarify argument names and contract for fsnotify_create() and
fsnotify_mkdir() to reflect the anomaly of kernfs, which leaves dentries
negavite after mkdir/create.

Remove the WARN_ON(!inode) in audit code that were added by the Fixes
commit under the wrong assumption that dentries cannot be negative after
mkdir/create.

Fixes: aa93bdc5500c ("fsnotify: use helpers to access data by data_type")
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/87mtp5yz0q.fsf@collabora.com/
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211025192746.66445-4-krisman@collabora.com
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Reported-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi &lt;krisman@collabora.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi &lt;krisman@collabora.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Clarify argument names and contract for fsnotify_create() and
fsnotify_mkdir() to reflect the anomaly of kernfs, which leaves dentries
negavite after mkdir/create.

Remove the WARN_ON(!inode) in audit code that were added by the Fixes
commit under the wrong assumption that dentries cannot be negative after
mkdir/create.

Fixes: aa93bdc5500c ("fsnotify: use helpers to access data by data_type")
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/87mtp5yz0q.fsf@collabora.com/
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20211025192746.66445-4-krisman@collabora.com
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
Reported-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi &lt;krisman@collabora.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein &lt;amir73il@gmail.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi &lt;krisman@collabora.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Jan Kara &lt;jack@suse.cz&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>audit_alloc_mark(): don't open-code ERR_CAST()</title>
<updated>2021-02-23T15:25:27+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Al Viro</name>
<email>viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk</email>
</author>
<published>2021-01-30T02:36:33+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.tavy.me/linux-stable.git/commit/?id=b1adbdbda458b2ec69bf5915c4dcdbe2bd5e7bad'/>
<id>b1adbdbda458b2ec69bf5915c4dcdbe2bd5e7bad</id>
<content type='text'>
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
