[PATCH] ovl: use I_MUTEX_PARENT when locking parent in ovl_create_temp()

"NeilBrown" <[email protected]> Mon, 04 Aug 2025 22:11:28 +1000
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-bcachefs,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.linux-unionfs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
ovl_create_temp() treats "workdir" as a parent in which it creates an
object so it should use I_MUTEX_PARENT.

Prior to the commit identified below the lock was taken by the caller
which sometimes used I_MUTEX_PARENT and sometimes used I_MUTEX_NORMAL.
The use of I_MUTEX_NORMAL was incorrect but unfortunately copied into
ovl_create_temp().

Note to backporters: This patch only applies after the last Fixes given
below (post v6.16).  To fix the bug in v6.7 and later the
inode_lock() call in ovl_copy_up_workdir() needs to nest using
I_MUTEX_PARENT.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/[email protected]/
Cc: [email protected]
Reported-by: [email protected]
Fixes: c63e56a4a652 ("ovl: do not open/llseek lower file with upper sb_writers held")
Fixes: d2c995581c7c ("ovl: Call ovl_create_temp() without lock held.")
Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <[email protected]>
---
 fs/overlayfs/dir.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
index 70b8687dc45e..dbd63a74df4b 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/dir.c
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ struct dentry *ovl_create_temp(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *workdir,
 			       struct ovl_cattr *attr)
 {
 	struct dentry *ret;
-	inode_lock(workdir->d_inode);
+	inode_lock_nested(workdir->d_inode, I_MUTEX_PARENT);
 	ret = ovl_create_real(ofs, workdir,
 			      ovl_lookup_temp(ofs, workdir), attr);
 	inode_unlock(workdir->d_inode);