Re: [PATCH] pstore: Base compression input buffer size on estimated compressed size

[Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>]

On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 11:22:38PM +0200, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:
> Commit 1756ddea6916 ("pstore: Remove worst-case compression size logic")
> removed some clunky per-algorithm worst case size estimation routines on
> the basis that we can always store pstore records uncompressed, and
> these worst case estimations are about how much the size might
> inadvertently *increase* due to encapsulation overhead when the input
> cannot be compressed at all. So if compression results in a size
> increase, we just store the original data instead.

Does the Z_FINISH vs Z_SYNC_FLUSH thing need to be fixed as well, or
does that become a non-issue with this change?

> 
> However, it seems that the the original code was misinterpreting these
> calculations as an estimation of how much uncompressed data might fit
> into a compressed buffer of a given size, and it was using the results
> to consume the input data in larger chunks than the pstore record size,
> relying on the compression to ensure that what ultimately gets stored
> fits into the available space.
> 
> One result of this, as observed and reported by Linus, is that upgrading
> to a newer kernel that includes the given commit may result in pstore
> decompression errors reported in the kernel log. This is due to the fact
> that the existing records may unexpectedly decompress to a size that is
> larger than the pstore record size.
> 
> Another potential problem caused by this change is that we may
> underutilize the fixed sized records on pstore backends such as ramoops.
> And on pstore backends with variable sized records such as EFI, we will
> end up creating many more entries than before to store the same amount
> of compressed data.
> 
> So let's fix both issues, by bringing back the typical case estimation of
> how much ASCII text captured from the dmesg log might fit into a pstore
> record of a given size after compression. The original implementation
> used the computation given below for zlib, and so simply taking 2x as a
> ballpark number seems appropriate here.
> 
>   switch (size) {
>   /* buffer range for efivars */
>   case 1000 ... 2000:
>   	cmpr = 56;
>   	break;
>   case 2001 ... 3000:
>   	cmpr = 54;
>   	break;
>   case 3001 ... 3999:
>   	cmpr = 52;
>   	break;
>   /* buffer range for nvram, erst */
>   case 4000 ... 10000:
>   	cmpr = 45;
>   	break;
>   default:
>   	cmpr = 60;
>   	break;
>   }
> 
>   return (size * 100) / cmpr;
> 
> While at it, rate limit the error message so we don't flood the log
> unnecessarily on systems that have accumulated a lot of pstore history.
> 
> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
> Cc: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@kernel.org>
> Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
> Cc: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@kernel.org>
> ---
>  fs/pstore/platform.c | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++-------
>  1 file changed, 23 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/pstore/platform.c b/fs/pstore/platform.c
> index 62356d542ef67f60..a866b70ea5933a1d 100644
> --- a/fs/pstore/platform.c
> +++ b/fs/pstore/platform.c
> @@ -98,7 +98,14 @@ MODULE_PARM_DESC(kmsg_bytes, "amount of kernel log to snapshot (in bytes)");
>  
>  static void *compress_workspace;
>  
> +/*
> + * Compression is only used for dmesg output, which consists of low-entropy
> + * ASCII text, and so we can assume a 2x compression factor is achievable.
> + */
> +#define DMESG_COMP_FACTOR	2
> +
>  static char *big_oops_buf;
> +static size_t max_uncompressed_size;
>  
>  void pstore_set_kmsg_bytes(int bytes)
>  {
> @@ -216,7 +223,7 @@ static void allocate_buf_for_compression(void)
>  	 * uncompressed record size, since any record that would be expanded by
>  	 * compression is just stored uncompressed.
>  	 */
> -	buf = kvzalloc(psinfo->bufsize, GFP_KERNEL);
> +	buf = kvzalloc(DMESG_COMP_FACTOR * psinfo->bufsize, GFP_KERNEL);
>  	if (!buf) {
>  		pr_err("Failed %zu byte compression buffer allocation for: %s\n",
>  		       psinfo->bufsize, compress);
> @@ -233,6 +240,7 @@ static void allocate_buf_for_compression(void)
>  
>  	/* A non-NULL big_oops_buf indicates compression is available. */
>  	big_oops_buf = buf;
> +	max_uncompressed_size = DMESG_COMP_FACTOR * psinfo->bufsize;
>  
>  	pr_info("Using crash dump compression: %s\n", compress);
>  }
> @@ -246,6 +254,7 @@ static void free_buf_for_compression(void)
>  
>  	kvfree(big_oops_buf);
>  	big_oops_buf = NULL;
> +	max_uncompressed_size = 0;
>  }
>  
>  void pstore_record_init(struct pstore_record *record,
> @@ -305,7 +314,7 @@ static void pstore_dump(struct kmsg_dumper *dumper,
>  		record.buf = psinfo->buf;
>  
>  		dst = big_oops_buf ?: psinfo->buf;
> -		dst_size = psinfo->bufsize;
> +		dst_size = max_uncompressed_size ?: psinfo->bufsize;
>  
>  		/* Write dump header. */
>  		header_size = snprintf(dst, dst_size, "%s#%d Part%u\n", why,
> @@ -326,8 +335,15 @@ static void pstore_dump(struct kmsg_dumper *dumper,
>  				record.compressed = true;
>  				record.size = zipped_len;
>  			} else {
> -				record.size = header_size + dump_size;
> -				memcpy(psinfo->buf, dst, record.size);
> +				/*
> +				 * Compression failed, so the buffer is most
> +				 * likely filled with binary data that does not
> +				 * compress as well as ASCII text. Copy as much
> +				 * of the uncompressed data as possible into
> +				 * the pstore record, and discard the rest.
> +				 */
> +				record.size = psinfo->bufsize;
> +				memcpy(psinfo->buf, dst, psinfo->bufsize);

I don't think this is "friendly" enough. :P

In the compression failure case, we've got a larger dst_size (and
dump_size, but technically it might not be true if something else went
wrong) than psinfo->bufsize, so we want to take the trailing bytes
(i.e. panic details are more likely at the end). And we should keep
the header, which is already present in "dst". I think we need to do
something like this:

	size_t buf_size_available = psinfo->bufsize - header_size;
	size_t dump_size_wanted = min(dump_size, buf_size_available);

	record.size = header_size + dump_size_wanted;
	memcpy(psinfo->buf, dst, header_size);
	memcpy(psinfo->buf + header_size,
	       dst + header_size + (dump_size - dump_size_wanted),
	       dump_size_wanted);

My eyes, my eyes.

>  			}
>  		} else {
>  			record.size = header_size + dump_size;
> @@ -583,7 +599,7 @@ static void decompress_record(struct pstore_record *record,
>  	}
>  
>  	/* Allocate enough space to hold max decompression and ECC. */
> -	workspace = kvzalloc(psinfo->bufsize + record->ecc_notice_size,
> +	workspace = kvzalloc(max_uncompressed_size + record->ecc_notice_size,
>  			     GFP_KERNEL);
>  	if (!workspace)
>  		return;
> @@ -591,11 +607,11 @@ static void decompress_record(struct pstore_record *record,
>  	zstream->next_in	= record->buf;
>  	zstream->avail_in	= record->size;
>  	zstream->next_out	= workspace;
> -	zstream->avail_out	= psinfo->bufsize;
> +	zstream->avail_out	= max_uncompressed_size;
>  
>  	ret = zlib_inflate(zstream, Z_FINISH);
>  	if (ret != Z_STREAM_END) {
> -		pr_err("zlib_inflate() failed, ret = %d!\n", ret);
> +		pr_err_ratelimited("zlib_inflate() failed, ret = %d!\n", ret);
>  		kvfree(workspace);
>  		return;
>  	}
> -- 
> 2.39.2
> 

Otherwise, yes, this should do nicely. :)

-- 
Kees Cook