From: Konstantin Khorenko <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
To: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>,
Peter Oberparleiter <oberpar@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: "Nathan Chancellor" <nathan@kernel.org>,
"Nicolas Schier" <nsc@kernel.org>,
"Mikhail Zaslonko" <zaslonko@linux.ibm.com>,
"Thomas Weißschuh" <linux@weissschuh.net>,
"Miguel Ojeda" <ojeda@kernel.org>,
"Masahiro Yamada" <masahiroy@kernel.org>,
"Vasileios Almpanis" <vasileios.almpanis@virtuozzo.com>,
"Pavel Tikhomirov" <ptikhomirov@virtuozzo.com>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org,
"Konstantin Khorenko" <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
Subject: [PATCH v4 1/1] gcov: use atomic counter updates to fix concurrent access crashes
Date: Mon, 11 May 2026 12:50:52 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260511105052.417187-2-khorenko@virtuozzo.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260511105052.417187-1-khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
GCC's GCOV instrumentation can merge global branch counters with loop
induction variables as an optimization. In inflate_fast(), the inner
copy loops get transformed so that the GCOV counter value is loaded
multiple times to compute the loop base address, start index, and end
bound. Since GCOV counters are global (not per-CPU), concurrent
execution on different CPUs causes the counter to change between loads,
producing inconsistent values and out-of-bounds memory writes.
The crash manifests during IPComp (IP Payload Compression) processing
when inflate_fast() runs concurrently on multiple CPUs:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ffffd0a3c0902ffa
RIP: inflate_fast+1431
Call Trace:
zlib_inflate
__deflate_decompress
crypto_comp_decompress
ipcomp_decompress [xfrm_ipcomp]
ipcomp_input [xfrm_ipcomp]
xfrm_input
At the crash point, the compiler generated three loads from the same
global GCOV counter (__gcov0.inflate_fast+216) to compute base, start,
and end for an indexed loop. Another CPU modified the counter between
loads, making the values inconsistent - the write went 3.4 MB past a
65 KB buffer.
Add -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic to CFLAGS_GCOV at the global level in
the top-level Makefile, guarded by a try-run compile test. The test
compiles a minimal program with and without -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic
using the full KBUILD_CFLAGS, then compares undefined symbols in the
resulting object files. If prefer-atomic introduces new undefined
references (such as __atomic_fetch_add_8 on i386 or
__aarch64_ldadd8_relax on arm64 with outline-atomics), the flag is not
added -- the kernel does not link against libatomic.
On architectures where GCC inlines 64-bit atomic counter updates
(x86_64, s390, ...) the test passes and the flag is enabled, preventing
the compiler from merging counters with loop induction variables and
fixing the observed concurrent-access crash.
On architectures where the flag would introduce libatomic dependencies,
it is silently omitted and behaviour is no worse than before this patch.
Move the CFLAGS_GCOV block from its original position (before the arch
Makefile include) to after the core KBUILD_CFLAGS assignments but before
the scripts/Makefile.gcc-plugins include.
This placement ensures the try-run test sees arch-specific flags
(-m32, -march=, -mno-outline-atomics) while avoiding GCC plugin flags
(-fplugin=) that would break the test on clean builds when plugin shared
objects do not yet exist.
Signed-off-by: Konstantin Khorenko <khorenko@virtuozzo.com>
---
Makefile | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9f88dcaae382..2b352ad22d06 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -824,12 +824,6 @@ endif # KBUILD_EXTMOD
# Defaults to vmlinux, but the arch makefile usually adds further targets
all: vmlinux
-CFLAGS_GCOV := -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage
-ifdef CONFIG_CC_IS_GCC
-CFLAGS_GCOV += -fno-tree-loop-im
-endif
-export CFLAGS_GCOV
-
# The arch Makefiles can override CC_FLAGS_FTRACE. We may also append it later.
ifdef CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER
CC_FLAGS_FTRACE := -pg
@@ -1147,6 +1141,27 @@ endif
# Ensure compilers do not transform certain loops into calls to wcslen()
KBUILD_CFLAGS += -fno-builtin-wcslen
+CFLAGS_GCOV := -fprofile-arcs -ftest-coverage
+ifdef CONFIG_CC_IS_GCC
+CFLAGS_GCOV += -fno-tree-loop-im
+# Use atomic counter updates to avoid concurrent-access crashes in GCOV.
+# Only enable if -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic does not introduce new
+# undefined symbols (e.g. libatomic calls that the kernel cannot link).
+CFLAGS_GCOV += $(call try-run,\
+ echo 'long long x; void f(void){x++;}' | \
+ $(CC) $(KBUILD_CPPFLAGS) $(KBUILD_CFLAGS) -w -fprofile-arcs \
+ -ftest-coverage -x c - -c -o "$$TMP.base" && \
+ echo 'long long x; void f(void){x++;}' | \
+ $(CC) $(KBUILD_CPPFLAGS) $(KBUILD_CFLAGS) -w -fprofile-arcs \
+ -ftest-coverage -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic \
+ -x c - -c -o "$$TMP" && \
+ $(NM) "$$TMP.base" | grep ' U ' > "$$TMP.ubase" || true ; \
+ $(NM) "$$TMP" | grep ' U ' > "$$TMP.utest" || true ; \
+ cmp -s "$$TMP.ubase" "$$TMP.utest",\
+ -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic)
+endif
+export CFLAGS_GCOV
+
# change __FILE__ to the relative path to the source directory
ifdef building_out_of_srctree
KBUILD_CPPFLAGS += -fmacro-prefix-map=$(srcroot)/=
base-commit: 70390501d1944d4e5b8f7352be180fceb3a44132
--
2.47.1
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-05-11 10:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-05-11 10:50 [PATCH v4 0/1] gcov: use -fprofile-update=prefer-atomic with compile-time guard Konstantin Khorenko
2026-05-11 10:50 ` Konstantin Khorenko [this message]
2026-05-11 11:48 ` [PATCH v4 1/1] gcov: use atomic counter updates to fix concurrent access crashes Arnd Bergmann
2026-05-13 9:15 ` Peter Oberparleiter
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