diff --git a/Documentation/trace/events.rst b/Documentation/trace/events.rst
index 2a5aa48eff6c7..58a471b690e07 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/events.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/events.rst
@@ -230,6 +230,16 @@ Currently the caret ('^') for an error always appears at the beginning of
 the filter string; the error message should still be useful though
 even without more accurate position info.
 
+5.2.1 Filter limitations
+------------------------
+
+If a filter is placed on a string pointer ``(char *)`` that does not point
+to a string on the ring buffer, but instead points to kernel or user space
+memory, then, for safety reasons, at most 1024 bytes of the content is
+copied onto a temporary buffer to do the compare. If the copy of the memory
+faults (the pointer points to memory that should not be accessed), then the
+string compare will be treated as not matching.
+
 5.3 Clearing filters
 --------------------
 
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
index 78a678eeb1409..7b1fb811cb0ab 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
  * Copyright (C) 2009 Tom Zanussi <tzanussi@gmail.com>
  */
 
+#include <linux/uaccess.h>
 #include <linux/module.h>
 #include <linux/ctype.h>
 #include <linux/mutex.h>
@@ -654,6 +655,47 @@ DEFINE_EQUALITY_PRED(32);
 DEFINE_EQUALITY_PRED(16);
 DEFINE_EQUALITY_PRED(8);
 
+/* user space strings temp buffer */
+#define USTRING_BUF_SIZE	1024
+
+struct ustring_buffer {
+	char		buffer[USTRING_BUF_SIZE];
+};
+
+static __percpu struct ustring_buffer *ustring_per_cpu;
+
+static __always_inline char *test_string(char *str)
+{
+	struct ustring_buffer *ubuf;
+	char __user *ustr;
+	char *kstr;
+
+	if (!ustring_per_cpu)
+		return NULL;
+
+	ubuf = this_cpu_ptr(ustring_per_cpu);
+	kstr = ubuf->buffer;
+
+	/*
+	 * We use TASK_SIZE to denote user or kernel space, but this will
+	 * not work for all architectures. If it picks the wrong one, it may
+	 * just fail the filter (but will not bug).
+	 *
+	 * TODO: Have a way to properly denote which one this is for.
+	 */
+	if (likely((unsigned long)str >= TASK_SIZE)) {
+		/* For safety, do not trust the string pointer */
+		if (!strncpy_from_kernel_nofault(kstr, str, USTRING_BUF_SIZE))
+			return NULL;
+	} else {
+		/* user space address? */
+		ustr = (char __user *)str;
+		if (!strncpy_from_user_nofault(kstr, ustr, USTRING_BUF_SIZE))
+			return NULL;
+	}
+	return kstr;
+}
+
 /* Filter predicate for fixed sized arrays of characters */
 static int filter_pred_string(struct filter_pred *pred, void *event)
 {
@@ -671,10 +713,16 @@ static int filter_pred_string(struct filter_pred *pred, void *event)
 static int filter_pred_pchar(struct filter_pred *pred, void *event)
 {
 	char **addr = (char **)(event + pred->offset);
+	char *str;
 	int cmp, match;
-	int len = strlen(*addr) + 1;	/* including tailing '\0' */
+	int len;
 
-	cmp = pred->regex.match(*addr, &pred->regex, len);
+	str = test_string(*addr);
+	if (!str)
+		return 0;
+
+	len = strlen(str) + 1;	/* including tailing '\0' */
+	cmp = pred->regex.match(str, &pred->regex, len);
 
 	match = cmp ^ pred->not;
 
@@ -1320,8 +1368,17 @@ static int parse_pred(const char *str, void *data,
 
 		} else if (field->filter_type == FILTER_DYN_STRING)
 			pred->fn = filter_pred_strloc;
-		else
+		else {
+
+			if (!ustring_per_cpu) {
+				/* Once allocated, keep it around for good */
+				ustring_per_cpu = alloc_percpu(struct ustring_buffer);
+				if (!ustring_per_cpu)
+					goto err_mem;
+			}
+
 			pred->fn = filter_pred_pchar;
+		}
 		/* go past the last quote */
 		i++;
 
@@ -1387,6 +1444,9 @@ static int parse_pred(const char *str, void *data,
 err_free:
 	kfree(pred);
 	return -EINVAL;
+err_mem:
+	kfree(pred);
+	return -ENOMEM;
 }
 
 enum {