linux/kernel
Steven Rostedt 90f9f5d64c tracing: Fix crash on synthetic stacktrace field usage
When creating a synthetic event based on an existing synthetic event that
had a stacktrace field and the new synthetic event used that field a
kernel crash occurred:

 ~# cd /sys/kernel/tracing
 ~# echo 's:stack unsigned long stack[];' > dynamic_events
 ~# echo 'hist:keys=prev_pid:s0=common_stacktrace if prev_state & 3' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger
 ~# echo 'hist:keys=next_pid:s1=$s0:onmatch(sched.sched_switch).trace(stack,$s1)' >> events/sched/sched_switch/trigger

The above creates a synthetic event that takes a stacktrace when a task
schedules out in a non-running state and passes that stacktrace to the
sched_switch event when that task schedules back in. It triggers the
"stack" synthetic event that has a stacktrace as its field (called "stack").

 ~# echo 's:syscall_stack s64 id; unsigned long stack[];' >> dynamic_events
 ~# echo 'hist:keys=common_pid:s2=stack' >> events/synthetic/stack/trigger
 ~# echo 'hist:keys=common_pid:s3=$s2,i0=id:onmatch(synthetic.stack).trace(syscall_stack,$i0,$s3)' >> events/raw_syscalls/sys_exit/trigger

The above makes another synthetic event called "syscall_stack" that
attaches the first synthetic event (stack) to the sys_exit trace event and
records the stacktrace from the stack event with the id of the system call
that is exiting.

When enabling this event (or using it in a historgram):

 ~# echo 1 > events/synthetic/syscall_stack/enable

Produces a kernel crash!

 BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: 0000000000400010
 #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
 #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
 PGD 0 P4D 0
 Oops: Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI
 CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 1257 Comm: bash Not tainted 6.16.3+deb14-amd64 #1 PREEMPT(lazy)  Debian 6.16.3-1
 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.17.0-debian-1.17.0-1 04/01/2014
 RIP: 0010:trace_event_raw_event_synth+0x90/0x380
 Code: c5 00 00 00 00 85 d2 0f 84 e1 00 00 00 31 db eb 34 0f 1f 00 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 <49> 8b 04 24 48 83 c3 01 8d 0c c5 08 00 00 00 01 cd 41 3b 5d 40 0f
 RSP: 0018:ffffd2670388f958 EFLAGS: 00010202
 RAX: ffff8ba1065cc100 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000
 RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: fffff266ffda7b90 RDI: ffffd2670388f9b0
 RBP: 0000000000000010 R08: ffff8ba104e76000 R09: ffffd2670388fa50
 R10: ffff8ba102dd42e0 R11: ffffffff9a908970 R12: 0000000000400010
 R13: ffff8ba10a246400 R14: ffff8ba10a710220 R15: fffff266ffda7b90
 FS:  00007fa3bc63f740(0000) GS:ffff8ba2e0f48000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
 CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
 CR2: 0000000000400010 CR3: 0000000107f9e003 CR4: 0000000000172ef0
 Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  ? __tracing_map_insert+0x208/0x3a0
  action_trace+0x67/0x70
  event_hist_trigger+0x633/0x6d0
  event_triggers_call+0x82/0x130
  trace_event_buffer_commit+0x19d/0x250
  trace_event_raw_event_sys_exit+0x62/0xb0
  syscall_exit_work+0x9d/0x140
  do_syscall_64+0x20a/0x2f0
  ? trace_event_raw_event_sched_switch+0x12b/0x170
  ? save_fpregs_to_fpstate+0x3e/0x90
  ? _raw_spin_unlock+0xe/0x30
  ? finish_task_switch.isra.0+0x97/0x2c0
  ? __rseq_handle_notify_resume+0xad/0x4c0
  ? __schedule+0x4b8/0xd00
  ? restore_fpregs_from_fpstate+0x3c/0x90
  ? switch_fpu_return+0x5b/0xe0
  ? do_syscall_64+0x1ef/0x2f0
  ? do_fault+0x2e9/0x540
  ? __handle_mm_fault+0x7d1/0xf70
  ? count_memcg_events+0x167/0x1d0
  ? handle_mm_fault+0x1d7/0x2e0
  ? do_user_addr_fault+0x2c3/0x7f0
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

The reason is that the stacktrace field is not labeled as such, and is
treated as a normal field and not as a dynamic event that it is.

In trace_event_raw_event_synth() the event is field is still treated as a
dynamic array, but the retrieval of the data is considered a normal field,
and the reference is just the meta data:

// Meta data is retrieved instead of a dynamic array
  str_val = (char *)(long)var_ref_vals[val_idx];

// Then when it tries to process it:
  len = *((unsigned long *)str_val) + 1;

It triggers a kernel page fault.

To fix this, first when defining the fields of the first synthetic event,
set the filter type to FILTER_STACKTRACE. This is used later by the second
synthetic event to know that this field is a stacktrace. When creating
the field of the new synthetic event, have it use this FILTER_STACKTRACE
to know to create a stacktrace field to copy the stacktrace into.

Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
Cc: Tom Zanussi <zanussi@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260122194824.6905a38e@gandalf.local.home
Fixes: 00cf3d672a ("tracing: Allow synthetic events to pass around stacktraces")
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
2026-01-23 13:34:21 -05:00
..
bpf bpf: Reject BPF_MAP_TYPE_INSN_ARRAY in check_reg_const_str() 2026-01-07 19:03:46 -08:00
cgroup kernel: cgroup: Add LGPL-2.1 SPDX license ID to legacy_freezer.c 2026-01-15 22:03:15 -10:00
configs
debug
dma dma-mapping fixes for Linux 6.19: 2025-12-11 08:14:23 +09:00
entry
events Fix perf swevent hrtimer deinit regression. 2026-01-11 06:55:27 -10:00
futex Futex changes for v6.19: 2025-12-10 17:21:30 +09:00
gcov
irq treewide: Update email address 2026-01-11 06:09:11 -10:00
kcsan
livepatch
liveupdate kho: validate preserved memory map during population 2026-01-14 22:16:21 -08:00
locking
module kernel: modules: Add SPDX license identifier to kmod.c 2026-01-15 16:58:28 -08:00
power Merge branch 'pm-em' 2026-01-16 16:16:24 +01:00
printk printk fixup for 6.19 rc6 2026-01-16 09:46:59 -08:00
rcu
sched sched/deadline: Use ENQUEUE_MOVE to allow priority change 2026-01-15 21:57:53 +01:00
time hrtimer: Fix softirq base check in update_needs_ipi() 2026-01-13 11:04:41 +01:00
trace tracing: Fix crash on synthetic stacktrace field usage 2026-01-23 13:34:21 -05:00
unwind
.gitignore
Kconfig.freezer
Kconfig.hz
Kconfig.kexec
Kconfig.locks
Kconfig.preempt
Makefile
acct.c
async.c
audit.c
audit.h
audit_fsnotify.c
audit_tree.c
audit_watch.c
auditfilter.c
auditsc.c
backtracetest.c
bounds.c
capability.c
cfi.c
compat.c
configs.c
context_tracking.c
cpu.c cpu: Make atomic hotplug callbacks run with interrupts disabled on UP 2025-12-10 15:49:11 +09:00
cpu_pm.c
crash_core.c
crash_core_test.c
crash_dump_dm_crypt.c
crash_reserve.c
cred.c
delayacct.c
dma.c
elfcorehdr.c
exec_domain.c
exit.c Significant patch series in this pull request: 2025-12-06 14:01:20 -08:00
exit.h
extable.c
fail_function.c
fork.c Significant patch series in this pull request: 2025-12-06 14:01:20 -08:00
freezer.c
gen_kheaders.sh
groups.c
hung_task.c
iomem.c
irq_work.c
jump_label.c
kallsyms.c
kallsyms_internal.h
kallsyms_selftest.c
kallsyms_selftest.h
kcmp.c
kcov.c
kexec.c
kexec_core.c kernel/kexec: fix IMA when allocation happens in CMA area 2025-12-23 11:23:14 -08:00
kexec_elf.c
kexec_file.c
kexec_internal.h
kheaders.c
kprobes.c
kstack_erase.c
ksyms_common.c
ksysfs.c
kthread.c kthread: Warn if mm_struct lacks user_ns in kthread_use_mm() 2025-12-24 21:32:58 +01:00
latencytop.c
module_signature.c
notifier.c
nscommon.c
nsproxy.c
nstree.c
padata.c
panic.c Significant patch series in this pull request: 2025-12-06 14:01:20 -08:00
params.c
pid.c
pid_namespace.c
pid_sysctl.h
profile.c
ptrace.c
range.c
reboot.c
regset.c
relay.c
resource.c
resource_kunit.c
rseq.c
scftorture.c
scs.c
seccomp.c
signal.c
smp.c
smpboot.c
smpboot.h
softirq.c
stacktrace.c
static_call.c
static_call_inline.c
stop_machine.c
sys.c
sys_ni.c
sysctl-test.c
sysctl.c
task_work.c
taskstats.c
torture.c
tracepoint.c
tsacct.c
ucount.c
uid16.c
uid16.h
umh.c
up.c
user-return-notifier.c
user.c
user_namespace.c
utsname.c
utsname_sysctl.c
vhost_task.c
vmcore_info.c
watch_queue.c
watchdog.c powerpc/watchdog: add support for hardlockup_sys_info sysctl 2026-01-14 22:16:22 -08:00
watchdog_buddy.c
watchdog_perf.c
workqueue.c
workqueue_internal.h