Re: [PATCH] kcov: don't lose track of remote references during softirqs

[Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>]

On Tue, 11 Jun 2024 15:32:29 +0200 Aleksandr Nogikh <nogikh@google.com> wrote:

> In kcov_remote_start()/kcov_remote_stop(), we swap the previous KCOV
> metadata of the current task into a per-CPU variable. However, the
> kcov_mode_enabled(mode) check is not sufficient in the case of remote
> KCOV coverage: current->kcov_mode always remains KCOV_MODE_DISABLED
> for remote KCOV objects.
> 
> If the original task that has invoked the KCOV_REMOTE_ENABLE ioctl
> happens to get interrupted and kcov_remote_start() is called, it
> ultimately leads to kcov_remote_stop() NOT restoring the original
> KCOV reference. So when the task exits, all registered remote KCOV
> handles remain active forever.
> 
> Fix it by introducing a special kcov_mode that is assigned to the
> task that owns a KCOV remote object. It makes kcov_mode_enabled()
> return true and yet does not trigger coverage collection in
> __sanitizer_cov_trace_pc() and write_comp_data().

What are the userspace visible effects of this bug?  I *think* it's
just an efficiency thing, but how significant?  In other words, should
we backport this fix?