Re: [PATCH] mm: mmu_notifier: fix inconsistent memory between secondary MMU and host

Xiao Guangrong
2012-08-22T06:03:50Z

On 08/21/2012 11:06 PM, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 05:46:39PM +0800, Xiao Guangrong wrote:
>> There has a bug in set_pte_at_notify which always set the pte to the
>> new page before release the old page in secondary MMU, at this time,
>> the process will access on the new page, but the secondary MMU still
>> access on the old page, the memory is inconsistent between them
>>
>> Below scenario shows the bug more clearly:
>>
>> at the beginning: *p = 0, and p is write-protected by KSM or shared with
>> parent process
>>
>> CPU 0 CPU 1
>> write 1 to p to trigger COW,
>> set_pte_at_notify will be called:
>> *pte = new_page + W; /* The W bit of pte is set */
>>
>> *p = 1; /* pte is valid, so no #PF */
>>
>> return back to secondary MMU, then
>> the secondary MMU read p, but get:
>> *p == 0;
>>
>> /*
>> * !!!!!!
>> * the host has already set p to 1, but the secondary
>> * MMU still get the old value 0
>> */
>>
>> call mmu_notifier_change_pte to release
>> old page in secondary MMU
>
> The KSM usage of it looks safe because it will only establish readonly
> ptes with it.
>
> It seems a problem only for do_wp_page. It wasn't safe to setup
> writable ptes with it. I guess we first introduced it for KSM and then
> we added it to do_wp_page too by mistake.
>
> The race window is really tiny, it's unlikely it has ever triggered,
> however this one seem to be possible so it's slightly more serious
> than the other race you recently found (the previous one in the exit
> path I think it was impossible to trigger with KVM).
>
>> We can fix it by release old page first, then set the pte to the new
>> page.
>>
>> Note, the new page will be firstly used in secondary MMU before it is
>> mapped into the page table of the process, but this is safe because it
>> is protected by the page table lock, there is no race to change the pte
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Xiao Guangrong <xiaoguangrong@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>> ---
>> include/linux/mmu_notifier.h | 2 +-
>> 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h b/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
>> index 1d1b1e1..8c7435a 100644
>> --- a/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
>> +++ b/include/linux/mmu_notifier.h
>> @@ -317,8 +317,8 @@ static inline void mmu_notifier_mm_destroy(struct mm_struct *mm)
>> unsigned long ___address = __address; \
>> pte_t ___pte = __pte; \
>> \
>> - set_pte_at(___mm, ___address, __ptep, ___pte); \
>> mmu_notifier_change_pte(___mm, ___address, ___pte); \
>> + set_pte_at(___mm, ___address, __ptep, ___pte); \
>> })
>
> If we establish the spte on the new page, what will happen is the same
> race in reverse. The fundamental problem is that the first guy that
> writes to the "newpage" (guest or host) won't fault again and so it
> will fail to serialize against the PT lock.
>
> CPU0 CPU1
> oldpage[1] == 0 (both guest & host)
> oldpage[0] = 1
> trigger do_wp_page

We always do ptep_clear_flush before set_pte_at_notify(),
at this point, we have done:
pte = 0 and flush all tlbs

> mmu_notifier_change_pte
> spte = newpage + writable
> guest does newpage[1] = 1
> vmexit
> host read oldpage[1] == 0

It can not happen, at this point pte = 0, host can not
access oldpage anymore, host read can generate #PF, it
will be blocked on page table lock until CPU 0 release the lock.

> pte = newpage + writable (too late)
>