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authorXie Yuanbin <xieyuanbin1@huawei.com>2026-07-28 03:16:42 +0100
committerRussell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk>2026-08-05 16:15:51 +0100
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treee8ee4ac80f87e2ad1b6b0c877eccbb62b0915c02 /Documentation/userspace-api/mfd_noexec.rst
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ARM: 9485/1: mm: acquire mmap write lock around show_pte() for user faultsgrafted
When CONFIG_DEBUG_USER=y, and cmdline "user_debug=31" is set, a user fault may trigger show_pte() without any lock. If another thread in the same process concurrently calls munmap(), the page table pages may be freed while show_pte() is still traversing them, causing a use-after-free in show_pte(). If CONFIG_ARM_LPAE=y, this may cause a kernel panic if the pages table of PMD are freed when show_pte() is running. Acquire mmap_write_lock() around show_pte() for user faults to fix the contention. For user faults, additionally restrict that show_pte() is called only when the addr is a user-space address (addr < TASK_SIZE). This is because the lock of tsk->mm only protects the virtual memory of user address space, furthermore, dumping the page tables of a kernel-space address for user faults is unnecessary and may have security implications. Keep everything unchanged for kernel faults, because the kernel is already in the "oops" state, acquiring a lock may risk a deadlock. Co-developed-by: Qi Xi <xiqi2@huawei.com> Fixes: 6d021b724481 ("ARM: dump pgd, pmd and pte states on unhandled data abort faults") Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260716014022.2823-1-xieyuanbin1@huawei.com Acked-by: Lorenzo Stoakes (ARM) <ljs@kernel.org> Reviewed-by: Linus Walleij <linusw@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Qi Xi <xiqi2@huawei.com> Signed-off-by: Xie Yuanbin <xieyuanbin1@huawei.com> Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@armlinux.org.uk>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==================================
+Introduction of non-executable mfd
+==================================
+:Author:
+ Daniel Verkamp <dverkamp@chromium.org>
+ Jeff Xu <jeffxu@chromium.org>
+
+:Contributor:
+ Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@cyphar.com>
+
+Since Linux introduced the memfd feature, memfds have always had their
+execute bit set, and the memfd_create() syscall doesn't allow setting
+it differently.
+
+However, in a secure-by-default system, such as ChromeOS, (where all
+executables should come from the rootfs, which is protected by verified
+boot), this executable nature of memfd opens a door for NoExec bypass
+and enables “confused deputy attack”. E.g, in VRP bug [1]: cros_vm
+process created a memfd to share the content with an external process,
+however the memfd is overwritten and used for executing arbitrary code
+and root escalation. [2] lists more VRP of this kind.
+
+On the other hand, executable memfd has its legit use: runc uses memfd’s
+seal and executable feature to copy the contents of the binary then
+execute them. For such a system, we need a solution to differentiate runc's
+use of executable memfds and an attacker's [3].
+
+To address those above:
+ - Let memfd_create() set X bit at creation time.
+ - Let memfd be sealed for modifying X bit when NX is set.
+ - Add a new pid namespace sysctl: vm.memfd_noexec to help applications in
+ migrating and enforcing non-executable MFD.
+
+User API
+========
+``int memfd_create(const char *name, unsigned int flags)``
+
+``MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL``
+ When MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL bit is set in the ``flags``, memfd is created
+ with NX. F_SEAL_EXEC is set and the memfd can't be modified to
+ add X later. MFD_ALLOW_SEALING is also implied.
+ This is the most common case for the application to use memfd.
+
+``MFD_EXEC``
+ When MFD_EXEC bit is set in the ``flags``, memfd is created with X.
+
+Note:
+ ``MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL`` implies ``MFD_ALLOW_SEALING``. In case that
+ an app doesn't want sealing, it can add F_SEAL_SEAL after creation.
+
+
+Sysctl:
+========
+``pid namespaced sysctl vm.memfd_noexec``
+
+The new pid namespaced sysctl vm.memfd_noexec has 3 values:
+
+ - 0: MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_EXEC
+ memfd_create() without MFD_EXEC nor MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL acts like
+ MFD_EXEC was set.
+
+ - 1: MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_NOEXEC_SEAL
+ memfd_create() without MFD_EXEC nor MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL acts like
+ MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL was set.
+
+ - 2: MEMFD_NOEXEC_SCOPE_NOEXEC_ENFORCED
+ memfd_create() without MFD_NOEXEC_SEAL will be rejected.
+
+The sysctl allows finer control of memfd_create for old software that
+doesn't set the executable bit; for example, a container with
+vm.memfd_noexec=1 means the old software will create non-executable memfd
+by default while new software can create executable memfd by setting
+MFD_EXEC.
+
+The value of vm.memfd_noexec is passed to child namespace at creation
+time. In addition, the setting is hierarchical, i.e. during memfd_create,
+we will search from current ns to root ns and use the most restrictive
+setting.
+
+[1] https://crbug.com/1305267
+
+[2] https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?q=type%3Dbug-security%20memfd%20escalation&can=1
+
+[3] https://lwn.net/Articles/781013/