When netpoll is enabled, calling pr_warn_once() while holding kmemleak_lock in mem_pool_alloc() can cause a deadlock due to lock inversion with the netconsole subsystem. This occurs because pr_warn_once() may trigger netpoll, which eventually leads to __alloc_skb() and back into kmemleak code, attempting to reacquire kmemleak_lock. This is the path for the deadlock. mem_pool_alloc() -> raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&kmemleak_lock, flags); -> pr_warn_once() -> netconsole subsystem -> netpoll -> __alloc_skb -> __create_object -> raw_spin_lock_irqsave(&kmemleak_lock, flags); Fix this by setting a flag and issuing the pr_warn_once() after kmemleak_lock is released. Reported-by: Jakub Kicinski Fixes: c5665868183fec ("mm: kmemleak: use the memory pool for early allocations") Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao --- mm/kmemleak.c | 5 ++++- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/mm/kmemleak.c b/mm/kmemleak.c index 8d588e6853110..e0333455c7384 100644 --- a/mm/kmemleak.c +++ b/mm/kmemleak.c @@ -470,6 +470,7 @@ static struct kmemleak_object *mem_pool_alloc(gfp_t gfp) { unsigned long flags; struct kmemleak_object *object; + bool warn = false; /* try the slab allocator first */ if (object_cache) { @@ -488,8 +489,10 @@ static struct kmemleak_object *mem_pool_alloc(gfp_t gfp) else if (mem_pool_free_count) object = &mem_pool[--mem_pool_free_count]; else - pr_warn_once("Memory pool empty, consider increasing CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE\n"); + warn = true; raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore(&kmemleak_lock, flags); + if (warn) + pr_warn_once("Memory pool empty, consider increasing CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE\n"); return object; } --- base-commit: 260f6f4fda93c8485c8037865c941b42b9cba5d2 change-id: 20250731-kmemleak_lock-4e04743ea79e Best regards, -- Breno Leitao