Re: [RFC PATCH] ovl: keep merged and impure readdir caches separate

[Amir Goldstein]

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 2:14 PM Nirmoy Das <nirmoyd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi Amir,
>
> After a lot of debug and traces I found another bug in

Thanks for persisting on this problem!

> ovl_iterate_merged(): err is set from PTR_ERR(cache) before the
> IS_ERR(cache) check, so on success err holds the truncated cache
> pointer.
>
> Claude generated this:
>   getdents64
>   └── iterate_dir(outer_overlay_file)
>       └── ovl_iterate_merged                                    [OUTER]
>           │
>           ├── cache = ovl_cache_get(dentry):                    [OUTER ovl_cache_get]
>           │   │   cache_local = kzalloc(...)
>           │   │   res = ovl_dir_read_merged(...)
>           │   │   │
>           │   │   └── iterate_dir(inner_overlay_file)
>           │   │       └── ovl_iterate_merged                    [INNER]
>           │   │           ├── cache_inner = ovl_cache_get(...)  valid 0xFFFF8881_CAC4D940
>           │   │           ├── err = PTR_ERR(cache_inner)        = -893068992 (low32 of ptr)
>           │   │           ├── IS_ERR(cache_inner) → FALSE
>           │   │           └── return err;                       ← leaked stale int
>           │   │
>           │   └── return ERR_PTR(res);                          res = -893068992 (int)
>           │                                                     sign-extended →
>           │                                                     (void *)0xFFFFFFFF_CAC4D940

Wow! This is demonic.
I think we need to fortify ERR_PTR() to not accept illegal errno values.
I'll try to write a patch.

>           │
>           ├── err = PTR_ERR(cache);                             err = -893068992
>           ├── if (IS_ERR(cache))   ← FALSE: IS_ERR only trips on top 4K
>           │                                  (errno window);
>           │                                  0xFFFFFFFF_CAC4D940 sits below
>           │       return err;                                    ← skipped
>           ├── od->cache = cache;   ★ corrupted pointer stored
>           └── ovl_seek_cursor(od, ctx->pos)
>                   list_for_each(p, &od->cache->entries)
>                   p = *(&od->cache->entries) on bad pointer     ★ PAGE FAULT
>

Oh boy!

> Sent it as a separate patch: "[PATCH] ovl: keep err zero after
> successful ovl_cache_get()".
>
> Let me know what you think.

Patch looks great - real root cause, gave you minor comments.

IIUC, as far as you know, the repro never triggered the theoretic
OVL_WHITEOUTS race?

It was always just this ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR()) black magic?

Thanks,
Amir.