[PATCH v4 2/2] cgroups: add a pids subsystem

Aleksa Sarai
2015-03-06T01:45:57Z

Adds a new single-purpose pids subsystem to limit the number of
tasks that can run inside a cgroup. Essentially this is an
implementation of RLIMIT_NPROC that will applies to a cgroup rather than
a process tree.

PIDs are fundamentally a global resource, and it is possible to reach
PID exhaustion inside a cgroup without hitting any reasonable kmemcg
policy. Once you've hit PID exhaustion, you're only in a marginally
better state than OOM. This subsystem allows PID exhaustion inside a
cgroup to be prevented.

Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <cyphar-gVpy/LI/lHzQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org>
---
include/linux/cgroup_subsys.h | 4 +
init/Kconfig | 11 ++
kernel/Makefile | 1 +
kernel/cgroup_pids.c | 282 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4 files changed, 298 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 kernel/cgroup_pids.c

diff --git a/include/linux/cgroup_subsys.h b/include/linux/cgroup_subsys.h
index e4a96fb..a198822 100644
--- a/include/linux/cgroup_subsys.h
+++ b/include/linux/cgroup_subsys.h
@@ -47,6 +47,10 @@ SUBSYS(net_prio)
SUBSYS(hugetlb)
#endif

+#if IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_CGROUP_PIDS)
+SUBSYS(pids)
+#endif
+
/*
* The following subsystems are not supported on the default hierarchy.
*/
diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig
index f5dbc6d..88364c9 100644
--- a/init/Kconfig
+++ b/init/Kconfig
@@ -1054,6 +1054,17 @@ config CGROUP_HUGETLB
control group is tracked in the third page lru pointer. This means
that we cannot use the controller with huge page less than 3 pages.

+config CGROUP_PIDS
+ bool "Process number limiting on cgroups"
+ help
+ This options enables the setting of process number limits in the scope
+ of a cgroup. Any attempt to fork more processes than is allowed in the
+ cgroup will fail. PIDs are fundamentally a global resource because it
+ is fairly trivial to reach PID exhaustion before you reach even a
+ conservative kmemcg limit. As a result, it is possible to grind a
+ system to halt without being limited by other cgroup policies. The pids
+ cgroup subsystem is designed to stop this from happening.
+
config CGROUP_PERF
bool "Enable perf_event per-cpu per-container group (cgroup) monitoring"
depends on PERF_EVENTS && CGROUPS
diff --git a/kernel/Makefile b/kernel/Makefile
index 1408b33..e823592 100644
--- a/kernel/Makefile
+++ b/kernel/Makefile
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_BACKTRACE_SELF_TEST) += backtracetest.o
obj-$(CONFIG_COMPAT) += compat.o
obj-$(CONFIG_CGROUPS) += cgroup.o
obj-$(CONFIG_CGROUP_FREEZER) += cgroup_freezer.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_CGROUP_PIDS) += cgroup_pids.o
obj-$(CONFIG_CPUSETS) += cpuset.o
obj-$(CONFIG_UTS_NS) += utsname.o
obj-$(CONFIG_USER_NS) += user_namespace.o
diff --git a/kernel/cgroup_pids.c b/kernel/cgroup_pids.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a97fd0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kernel/cgroup_pids.c
@@ -0,0 +1,282 @@
+/*
+ * Process number limiting subsys for cgroups.
+ *
+ * Copyright (C) 2015 Aleksa Sarai <cyphar-gVpy/LI/lHzQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org>
+ *
+ */
+
+#include <linux/kernel.h>
+#include <linux/atomic.h>
+#include <linux/cgroup.h>
+#include <linux/slab.h>
+
+#define PIDS_UNLIMITED -1
+
+struct pids {
+ struct pids *parent;
+ struct cgroup_subsys_state css;
+
+ atomic_long_t counter;
+ long limit;
+};
+
+static inline struct pids *css_pids(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
+{
+ return css ? container_of(css, struct pids, css) : NULL;
+}
+
+static inline struct pids *task_pids(struct task_struct *task)
+{
+ return css_pids(task_css(task, pids_cgrp_id));
+}
+
+static struct pids *parent_pids(struct pids *pids)
+{
+ return css_pids(pids->css.parent);
+}
+
+static struct cgroup_subsys_state *
+pids_css_alloc(struct cgroup_subsys_state *parent)
+{
+ struct pids *pids;
+
+ pids = kzalloc(sizeof(struct pids), GFP_KERNEL);
+ if (!pids)
+ return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+
+ return &pids->css;
+}
+
+static int pids_css_online(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+ long limit = -1;
+
+ pids->parent = parent_pids(pids);
+ if (pids->parent)
+ limit = pids->parent->limit;
+
+ pids->limit = limit;
+ atomic_long_set(&pids->counter, 0);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static void pids_css_free(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css)
+{
+ kfree(css_pids(css));
+}
+
+/**
+ * pids_cancel - uncharge the local pid count
+ * @pids: the pid cgroup state
+ * @num: the number of pids to cancel
+ *
+ * This function will WARN if the pid count goes under 0,
+ * but will not prevent it.
+ */
+static void pids_cancel(struct pids *pids, int num)
+{
+ long new;
+
+ new = atomic_long_sub_return(num, &pids->counter);
+
+ /*
+ * A negative count is invalid, but pids_cancel() can't fail.
+ * So just emit a WARN.
+ */
+ WARN_ON(new < 0);
+}
+
+/**
+ * pids_charge - hierarchically uncharge the pid count
+ * @pids: the pid cgroup state
+ * @num: the number of pids to uncharge
+ *
+ * This function will not allow the pid count to go under 0,
+ * and will WARN if a caller attempts to do so.
+ */
+static void pids_uncharge(struct pids *pids, int num)
+{
+ struct pids *p;
+
+ for (p = pids; p; p = p->parent)
+ pids_cancel(p, num);
+}
+
+/**
+ * pids_charge - hierarchically charge the pid count
+ * @pids: the pid cgroup state
+ * @num: the number of pids to charge
+ *
+ * This function does *not* follow the pid limit set. It will not
+ * fail and the new pid count may exceed the limit.
+ */
+static void pids_charge(struct pids *pids, int num)
+{
+ struct pids *p;
+
+ for (p = pids; p; p = p->parent)
+ atomic_long_add(num, &p->counter);
+}
+
+/**
+ * pids_try_charge - hierarchically try to charge the pid count
+ * @pids: the pid cgroup state
+ * @num: the number of pids to charge
+ *
+ * This function follows the set limit. It can fail if the charge
+ * would cause the new value to exceed the limit.
+ * Returns 0 if the charge succeded, otherwise -EAGAIN.
+ */
+static int pids_try_charge(struct pids *pids, int num)
+{
+ struct pids *p, *fail;
+
+ for (p = pids; p; p = p->parent) {
+ long new;
+
+ new = atomic_long_add_return(num, &p->counter);
+
+ if (p->limit == PIDS_UNLIMITED)
+ continue;
+
+ if (new > p->limit) {
+ atomic_long_sub(num, &p->counter);
+ fail = p;
+ goto revert;
+ }
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+
+revert:
+ for (p = pids; p != fail; p = p->parent)
+ pids_cancel(pids, num);
+
+ return -EAGAIN;
+}
+
+static int pids_can_attach(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cgroup_taskset *tset)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+ unsigned long num_tasks = 0;
+ struct task_struct *task;
+
+ cgroup_taskset_for_each(task, tset)
+ num_tasks++;
+
+ /*
+ * Attaching to a cgroup is allowed to overcome the
+ * the PID limit, so that organisation operations aren't
+ * blocked by the `pids` cgroup controller.
+ */
+ pids_charge(pids, num_tasks);
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static void pids_cancel_attach(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cgroup_taskset *tset)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+ unsigned long num_tasks = 0;
+ struct task_struct *task;
+
+ cgroup_taskset_for_each(task, tset)
+ num_tasks++;
+
+ pids_uncharge(pids, num_tasks);
+}
+
+static int pids_can_fork(struct task_struct *task)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = task_pids(task);
+
+ return pids_try_charge(pids, 1);
+}
+
+static void pids_cancel_fork(struct task_struct *task)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = task_pids(task);
+
+ pids_uncharge(pids, 1);
+}
+
+static void pids_exit(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cgroup_subsys_state *old_css,
+ struct task_struct *task)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(old_css);
+
+ /*
+ * cgroup_exit() gets called as part of the cleanup code when
+ * copy_process() fails. This should ignored, because the
+ * pids_cancel_fork callback already deals with the cgroup failed fork
+ * case.
+ */
+ if (!(task->flags & PF_EXITING))
+ return;
+
+ pids_uncharge(pids, 1);
+}
+
+static int pids_write_max(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cftype *cft, s64 val)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+
+ /* PIDS_UNLIMITED is the only legal negative value. */
+ if (val < 0 && val != PIDS_UNLIMITED)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ /*
+ * Limit updates don't need to be mutex'd, since they
+ * are more of a "soft" limit in the sense that you can
+ * set a limit which is smaller than the current count
+ * to stop any *new* processes from spawning.
+ */
+ pids->limit = val;
+ return 0;
+}
+
+static s64 pids_read_max(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cftype *cft)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+
+ return pids->limit;
+}
+
+static s64 pids_read_current(struct cgroup_subsys_state *css,
+ struct cftype *cft)
+{
+ struct pids *pids = css_pids(css);
+
+ return atomic_long_read(&pids->counter);
+}
+
+static struct cftype files[] = {
+ {
+ .name = "max",
+ .write_s64 = pids_write_max,
+ .read_s64 = pids_read_max,
+ },
+ {
+ .name = "current",
+ .read_s64 = pids_read_current,
+ },
+ { } /* terminate */
+};
+
+struct cgroup_subsys pids_cgrp_subsys = {
+ .css_alloc = pids_css_alloc,
+ .css_online = pids_css_online,
+ .css_free = pids_css_free,
+ .can_attach = pids_can_attach,
+ .cancel_attach = pids_cancel_attach,
+ .can_fork = pids_can_fork,
+ .cancel_fork = pids_cancel_fork,
+ .exit = pids_exit,
+ .legacy_cftypes = files,
+ .early_init = 0,
+};
--
2.3.1